Overall a worth watching character-driven and action-packed drama.

If you're looking for a drama that shows significant characters development, that can make you feel fully engaged with them and focus on their journey, then this drama is for you.

Everything that i enjoyed a lot in this drama:

1. Equally strong and smart leads

FL (Ren Ruyi) is THE lethal yet graceful assassin you'll ever see in Cdrama land. This is her story in finding a new purpose in life, to be more humane than just being a "killing machine," from a lone wolf to finally finding the wolf pack that can fight together with her.
ML (Ning Yuanzhou) is a former assassin and leader of the country's intel organization. The greenest of green flags ML ever. He's heroic, charismatic, affectionate to those he loves, not an annoyingly cold character but still ruthless and unrestrained to enemies.
Ability-wise, we can say they're the the birds of a feather that flock together.

2. Very mature and healthy relationship between the leads

The love line is a delight bcs they integrate modern approach in the dialogues about relationship and how men and women should treat each other. Their attraction toward each other started with seduction and temptation, but smtms all you need in a relationship is proper communication, warm/ tight hugs and little kisses. Props to Liu Shishi and Liu Yuning for delivering the emotional scenes in a very believable way and their off-the-chart chemistry, making them the type of couple that you'd want to root for along the way. I'm also glad that their relationship didn't turn them into a total love brain, they still stick to mission and priority till the last moment!

3. COMEDY

The comedy is gold, unexpected but on point!!! you can just watch for the comedy bcs its so worth it!!

4. Intense fight scenes

This drama gives everything that you want to see in a normal wuxia drama: Heroes with great martial arts, sword-fights, fist-fights, bows, spears, machineries, war scenes, solo and group fights. The fight choreographies are top-notch!

5. A group of likeable characters with their heartening/ inspirational relationship

We get so many likeable characters, be it bcs of their personality, character development or backstory. My fav female characters: Ren Ruyi, Yang Ying, Mei Niang, Empress of Wu, and Chu Yue. They're strong women in their own way. Fav male characters: Ning Yuanzhou, Yu Shisan, Yuan Lu, Sun Lang, Qian Zhou. They can do bloody fights, but can also make you giggle bcs of their cute friendship and humour antics! Special mention to Deng Hui and PM of Wu, they are also full of the complexity and arc of human nature. It's very rare for me to find a Cdrama where many female and male characters are equally likeable. Last drama i watched with characters like this was Nirvana In Fire.

6. High quality OSTs
The OSTs are just incredible, provided with high quality by both legendary veterans and rising young singers in Cdrama OST circle.

The minus:

1. Smtms there are poor cuts/ editing in some scenes, though it didn't bother me that much lol

2. I can accept how our beloved characters end that way, as long as its proved to contribute a lot for the greater good. I also found that the ending relates so much to the Chinese title and some of the OSTs' lyric. But i still wish the scriptwriter/ director concluded the ending in a better way. I wonder if the real ending couldn't pass the broadcast review, bcs this drama does touch sensitive topics. The story even started with both leads barely got loyalty to the crown and almost forsaking it..

Despite the 'uncommon' ending, there are still many factors that make this drama deserve the love and praise from audiences. I am also thankful to this ensemble of actors who dedicatedly brought their characters to life, we wouldn't be so invested to the story without their impressive acting!

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Less than extraordinary, but still more than good

It is obvious that this drama wants to promote the difficulties, changes and positive energy encountered in the new media era. I love how the FLs represent three different kinds of women working in that field, who encounter various situations in real life.

The heroine He Huan (Liu Tao) is a wealthy and successful lady both in marriage and carrier as a newscaster/ host. After her husband ran away leaving her and their child with debts, she chose to sell her expensive bags, trying to rent out their house, and doing some odd jobs. She didn't run away from the creditors even though she's not obligated to pay the debts. Her show also got cancelled and she had to accept the new change happens in her workplace. I appreciate her character that was brave to return to zero, very hardworking, and keeping on her professional ethics even when she's in the lowest moment of her life.

Bai Yang (Qin Hailu) is a news producer who represents a strong woman dedicated to her career. Her story tells us the perspective of a single, older, and career-minded woman facing a blind date and the thoughts of marriage. Her love line with her rival Ren Jie was fun to see, without knowing it i was rooting for them all along.

Jiang Junhao (Liu Yuning) is responsible for making the refreshing, funny and sweet atmosphere in the drama. I appreciate that our ML isn't the kind of rich second-generation. He just suddenly appeared in the life of the heroine, is an ordinary person working hard as a chef who was cheated for money. On the road to collect the debt with the other creditors, he actually wasn't that stupid as he tried to play tricks to get the money back, but in the end his soft heart made him lost. He grew together with the heroine and support each other. I like how their love story isn't fabricating an unrealistic dream of a prince charming for the audience.

Last FL is Yuanyuan (Chai Biyun), although she is a bit vicious and likes to scheme, she is actually not annoying, has positive vibes and a bright character instead. As a child from an ordinary family in the countryside, she needs to work 100 times harder than others. All she can do is try to seize every opportunity to survive. She has clear mind about what she wants both in love life and career, and honestly she has the best character development among the FLs.

In general, this drama is unexpectedly relaxing and funny, as well as warm and relatable. The friendship among the FLs and their respective love stories are well-written. There are some dialogues that i felt like being written and acted carefully and it's succeed to convey the message to viewers. The drama title was well-chosen too, since the story tells us that friends and lovers might enlighten you in life, but the one who can make you stand up again is your own self.

I wish they could shorten the episodes though, we alr have 3FLs and 1ML, they shouldn't add more unnecessary parts about the supporting characters who actually don't have significant roles to the main story.

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A Series that Just Gets Better with Every Rewatch

There is a saying that the first viewing of a great series/ movie should be done for the plot, second watch for the details and third watch for the craft. While rewatching things (especially a long series) has never been one of my favourite things, i had done it for a very few JP dramas, which definitely the ones i love the most and since they just have a little number of episodes. Recently i had the chance to binge-rewatch this, and the sole reason was because i was triggered after seeing the series’ six-year anniversary post on twt LOL. I first watched it three years ago, though i had to finish it in haste before the university’s end of semester exam period coming up. I remember i loved the overall quality of the series, admiring some of the amazing casts, repeating the theme songs, looking up for the fanficts, but didn’t manage to rewatch it until this year, when i finally have more spare time and less thing to watch on my list.

STORY - They served us with the damn near flawless presentation of story and ideas, with a very well-written & executed plot, and various pacing for every arc. I didn't even touch the fast-forward button because there were no dull and cringe moments, made the 54 eps felt short honestly. I've watched so many great Asian series with great plots and production, but in terms of story-telling and characterization, nothing can top NiF on my list until now, with 1 Litre of Tears (JP) and Mr. Sunshine (KR) come next. The amount of subtle forshadows throughout the series is insane, every dialogue, manner even cinematography does matter to build the dramatic tension and suspense that will keep the viewers turning the page.
Note that if you're looking for a cute romance, then this series might not be your cup of tea. But if you're like me, who prefer a longing and tragic, but still an unwavering and beautiful love story, then come join the club~

ACTING/ CAST/ CHARACTER - It's an ensemble of stellar casts! I started watching this series as a total stranger to any of the actors, and i didn't expect to find a remarkable performance from EVERY actors that could brought me into their realm of thoughts and beliefs.

About the MLs, i like how Hu Ge acted with his whole body as Mei Changsu, he pulled off the cold demeanor and perseverance naturally, but also showed various ranges of emotion through that restrained expressions and gestures . His character was so resolute about his plans as he had a limited time & breath, he wasn't easily distracted by other things & always ready what to plan even in the last minute. He's smart indeed, but i prefer to say that he's a great observer and opportunist. He fought with psychological warfare, preparing for 12 years should have resulted in nearly perfect scheming capability.
As for Wang Kai, our Prince Jing with his utmost sincerity and fidelity toward family and camaraderie, i like how his character developed throughout the series without him erasing his roots, ideals and loyalty. Wang Kai did really great to act as a hot-headed but lovable prince, i did hope to see him doing more sword fights though!!!

There are a dozen supporting characters in this series with important roles. Mei Changsu and Prince Jing are indeed the pivotal characters, but the key figures who executed the major events are mostly the supporting ones, and that's soo satisfying to see them taking actions together for something of greater importance. Also this show is fun because it's not always the fight between protags vs villains, but the protags scheming for fights between villain vs villain!

Next, though this is a male-centered series, it exceeded my expectation by having the female characters stand out with different strength each. They're not superwomen, they have their own weaknesses but it's not a reason for them to back out from the difficult and unfair environments. We got the physically strong and loyal women like Nihuang, Xia Dong, Gong Yu. The benevolent & quick-witted Consort Jing, clever but ruthless strategist Qin Banruo, the mentally strong & brave Grand Princess Liyang! The first drama ever where i admire all of the key female characters.

MUSIC - I'm just glad that our 3 main leads are also singers in real life and they gave us the beautiful and legendary OSTs that i'll never forget, and all of Meng Ke's instrumental musics are absolutely another amazing thing in this drama!

REWATCH VALUE - it's all going back to the headline and introduction section of this review. For me personally, who hardly find a C-drama that mainly focus on palace politic intriguing back then (i only loved watching wuxia/ xianxia/ republican ones) and was a stranger to the actors (i only found out that Hu Ge played Liu Lang in The Young Warriors 2006 after like 20eps in!) this show is truly a gem and i could see why it was a BIG HIT, even bagged soo many awards for the creative team and actors. And guess what, NiF was also claimed by Chinese drama industry as the work that restored the confidence in historical/ costume drama back in 2015 due to its realistic setting and respect for history and the source material, and it started the cinematic style trend for historical drama. The deep messages, which is absolutely not about revenge, but about how to live, how to die, how to admit past mistakes, accepting our weaknesses and try to give ourselves and other people a chance to change into the better human-being are very well conveyed to the viewers. The lingering awe that were left for it's brilliant script, character dynamics, the warmness and slight comedy revolving around Su Household make every rewatch of this series worth my time.

A 10/10 overall score, which i rarely give to a series, is not an exaggeration. I'm happy that in this lifetime i could find such a masterpiece and the amazing actors involved there. To you who have just started watching this series, don't give up even if it doesn't hook you right away, everything will be unfolded beautifully as you follow the flow of the story.

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