Sunbath12

This is richly produced if deeply flawed drama set during the Ming dynasty, highlighting the Huizhou ink industry. While there are moments of stirring tribute to the painstaking craftsmanship involved in the making of ink and moments of genuine human drama, this is overall a pretty meandering and lackluster drama that is far too long with 42 episodes. Think of every family drama trope you have seen in a period Chinese drama of a similar genre, and you will find it in this show. Most critically, there is little chemistry between the lead characters, who are only thinly constructed in writing and even more poorly executed on screen, especially the character of Luo Wenqian.

Some real emotional weight is brought through several veteran actors - notably Tian Xiaojie as Li Zhen's grandfather, Li Hongliang as her uncle, and Cao Lei as Luo Wenqian's brother. Unfortunately for Yang Zi, this is not her best feature - she is far more effective and engaging in the recent Flourished Peony.

I could not help thinking of The Story of Minglan while watching this. That drama was perhaps the first of this kind of idol period drama. Although a very long drama there as well involving various family and political drama arcs, it built to a nice climax as it went along. Moreover, the characters were dimensional and grew as the story grew. Unfortunately in The Heir, things build to an awkward ending arc (against the Japanese?), and the lead characters for the most part remained the same throughout the show. Unless you are very interesting in exploring ink-making or a devoted fan of the cast, you probably could skip out on this one.