Hime

I think so too. I found it to be better than some of the other historical kdramas of recent years but nowhere as good as some of the older ones. The acting was great but the writing was very flawed. I found the start to be strong and I liked how they wrapped up things but that is about it. I felt like this had a lot of potential that was wasted.

I blame the Left Minister. Like everything else bad that happened in the drama, I'm sure he is to blame for the ratings not being as high as they could be. XD

Strong start, nice ending but average middle. Wish they had made this less about the Left Minister. His character and everything related to him made me want to skip scenes all the time. I know he is the main conflict of the plot but still, I did not even hate him, I just did not care to see him on screen.

This was a better sageuk than some of the ones I have watched in the past few years but still had flaws and was far from being as good as the older ones.

If I had to sum it up, this drama shows how "small" crimes like domestic violence and rape, crimes that are often ignored or made out to be less serious than they are, can destroy the life of not only the victim but also the lives of the abuser and everyone around them. In this drama, in a way or another, EVERYONE suffers the consequences of what happened, even unrelated people.

As a society we need to stop seeing these as small crimes and see them for what they are - crimes so horrible that your life is the only thing you have left, which is why so many victims often choose to end their lives.

True. There are a lot of things we kinda let go because it is a drama. I did too or I would not have been able to watch the drama but in the back of my mind I still wished they had chosen something else, maybe stick to the fighting thing which is still dangerous but only to the people fighting, not innocent people that are just out on the street. They could have still portrayed the ML as someone who needed to earn money and did not care much for his well-being with the fighting thing and still have a life changing injury and everything else, it is just that the car racing thing was "cooler" and "edgier" so people would be more interested in the drama, maybe even attract a bit more of the male audience.

I'm 31 so I know how to differentiate drama from real life but teenagers and young adults watching the drama might find the whole car racing thing cool and want to give it a try. If people want to risk their lives, go for it, just don't do dangerous stuff that risks other peoples lives, then you are just being irresponsible.

They sometimes mix the car racing scenes and the romantic scenes so hopefully you will not have to fast forward too much. ^^

In the original drama the leads had a 7 year age gap with the real age gap between the actors being 12 years...a bit big but still ok. You could tell the FL was older but not that much older.

The real age gap for the actors on this one is 16 years, which means she could be his mother...to make things worse she looks like she could actually be his mother because the actress looks her age while the actor looks even younger than his age. I was shocked to find out they were dating in real life and I wish them happiness but the obvious age gap made it hard for me to get into this. The plot and acting were also not that great.

It is not THE plot but is a big part of it. It is a main theme for the first 20 episodes when the drama has only 29 episodes.

I would still give it a try because it is not like it overtakes the romance like some other dramas do but I personally had to skip quite a few scenes.

Maybe give it a try and see if you like it. I don't enjoy car racing either, even hate it for how irresponsible it is, and still managed to finish the drama for the main leads romance.

Well, I personally saw many flaws in the writing and was not a fan of them making car racing such a big part of the plot (I cannot stand watching characters doing things that put people's lives at risk and car racing is one of them) BUT the main leads are good looking and their chemistry is great which is probably why the average rating is so high.

Probably the first 3 episodes put together into 1 episode.

This is like the short drama version of Fight for Love. Very similar plot but with some differences. Just like Fight for Love, there were parts I liked and others I found boring.

If you have nothing else to watch, this is not bad for a short drama.

This could have been a good short drama if it tried to be its own thing and the production team had put any effort into the script and editing...instead this was a complete waste of my time.

I will give you a few reasons why you should not waste yours:
1 - This is basically a mashup of several popular dramas, the most obvious one they copied was the drama The Double;
2 - The scenes were lazily put together, like forcefully trying to place a puzzle piece in the wrong spot. This was the result of my previous point (wanting to do a mash up of several popular regular dramas) + bad editing. So we go from one scene to another abruptly without things being properly explained. We do not know how they went from A to B, they just show us A and then B, no explanation whatsoever;
3 - The characters are completely unbeliavable even for short drama standards. One second they hate someone then love them for no reason then someone they love they start to hate. The characters are always saying and doing stuff that makes no sense. You can tell not even the actors believe in the parts they are playing. Sometimes it feels like you are watching a parody because of how dumb some of their actions are yet you can tell they want you to take it seriously;
4 - Although the drama is trash, they give us an open ending with the promise of another season, as if this was a masterpiece that everyone would want to sit and wait for a second season. Not me, that is for sure.

Do not be fooled by the summary or the cast. I thought this would be an entertaining watch but soon realised the production team put no effort into this. It felt like a school project that was put together last minute.

If a page for The Princess Decree is added, let me know. Tried adding this title but it is still not showing when I search MDL.

If this was kept shorter at 24, max 30 episodes and with a different ending, this would have been one of the best short dramas I have watched. For the first 25 episodes or so I was fully invested. It was as if I was watching a regular length historical drama.

Unfortunatelly it started to drag near the end and I did not like the ending. Still a good watch if you have nothing else to watch right now.

Thanks for the tip on the nationality thing.

I do Body Pump too, also like Power Jump, Cycling, Pilates, pure strength training. I like to switch it up a bit. I have a huge admiration for calisthenics, I just don't think I have enough strength right now but will get there some day.

Seems we have some things in common. I am also still single at 31 because I like the idea of being free to be myself, travel, learn and do what I like without having to worry about a husband and kids. I am not against the idea of marriage and having kids, its just not something that I feel I need to have, at least not right away. And with all the cases of violence against women, I think I am better single than hurrying to get into a relationship and finding myself in a bad situation. Plus, I am already pretty busy, imagine if I had a husband and kids. I admire people who can do all that, have a full time job and still keep it together. ^^'

1. Neither me nor my sister have French nationality, probably should have but don't. Both our cousins have both French and Portuguese nationality tho. The benefits are for some other reason that should would be able to explain better than me. I think it has to with her age, being single and such, not sure. Other benefits are specific to working in Auchan.

2. That is definitely a problem here in Portugal too. If I was not working remotely, I would have to drive 30-40 minutes to get to work everyday and that is because I live between 2 cities that are not some of the cities with the worst traffic. About the racism, I cannot talk about black people but I have noticed quite a bit of racism against Algerians. I rarely deal with racist people tho, as soon as I notice someone is racist or judges people based on their background or such, I walk away, cannot stand people like that.

3. It used to be for fun. I also wanted to get Asian languages to the same level of fluency of my English but I have had to make choices because I had to prioritize my health. I do not have enough time to study several languages so I had to stick to one. Which does not mean that I will not go back to Japanese or Korean in the future, might even pick them both at the same time since they have similar grammar. I also learn most things on my own and love a good challenge. Keeps life interesting.

4. Ideally you should be sleeping at least 8 hours but I know it is not always possible. Exercising is about consistency, even if you can only dedicate 2h a week it is better than nothing. I also had back pain (my work requires me to be sitting for many hours) but strength training has helped a lot with that. Maybe you can try going for walks while practicing a language, listen to a podcast or something. When we have a lot of things to do it helps when we can do some at the same time. Sometimes I cook or clean the house and practice my speaking or listening skills at the same time.

Well, as you previously said, 加油!

Sounds about right. For that amount you would buy an old house that needs repairs in Portugal. A good house that is not in the middle of nowhere, will start somewhere around 500 000€

Our grandparents would be able to buy a house by selling a cow and a few chickens. Nowadays we cannot buy one even if we sell a kidney.

For a bit of context, my mother is French and my father is Portuguese. We visit France at least once a year, more often now that my sister moved there. Last time I stayed there for almost 3 months. Since I work remotely and make my own schedule I have the freedom to travel anywhere at any time of the year, as long as I have access to a computer and internet I can work.

Yes, her net salary is around 1500€, she works at Auchan and also has other benefits like extra money for grocery shopping there and such and in terms of government support she applied to be able to get an appartment for cheaper and while she is waiting she is staying at my uncle´s house. They live in Orléans in a ville called La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin so yes, the rents will be nowhere close to the ones in Paris. It has been a while since I last visited Paris but I can never forget that even many years ago, when I was like 13 years old, my aunt paid 12€ for 2 coffees and 2 hot chocolates. ^^'

From my past travelling experiences, I have noticed places like Paris, London, Toronto and such have extremely ridiculous prices. Back in 2016, a simple house in Toronto would cost about 1 million CAD. Not that Portugal is in a better situation right now. Portuguese people earning a minimum salary just cannot rent anything in big cities. They have to rent outside the city and then commute everyday to work.

So yeah, my sister is doing well and is able to save money, even bought a car and a trip to Sri Lanka ftom our uncle's workplace, because she does not live in Paris. She gives 300€ to my uncle to help with the rent, does all the grocery shopping and has some other expenses with the car, clothes and such but is still able to put aside about 600€ every month so saving up is not a problem.

About languages, I studied Japanese when I was still a teenager but life got in the way. I cannot really write and read but I can hold conversations and understand about 90% of what is spoken. Korean I studied for a few years but also had to stop (can read, write and speak since 한글 was pretty easy to learn). Chinese I attended classes but had to give up for an opportunity to do a 1 year intensive course in programming which is what I wanted to work with and it was through an internship from that same course that I got an opportunity to work for one of my teachers. I work independently but he has enough work for me that I do not need to look for work elsewhere and now that I have the freedom to make my own working schedule, I went back to studying Chinese. I think out of all Asian languages it will probably be the most useful one to learn and since I have been mostly watching Chinese dramas, I am not so dependent on subtitles. Other than these 3 languages I speak Portuguese (native), English (fluent) and Spanish and French (conversational). I understand almost everything in French but need to work on my speaking.

About sleep, yes, please get proper sleep. I know exactly what you are talking about and for us women sleep is even more necessary than for men. Even for weigth loss, at one point I was doing everything right, eating healthy, going to the gym 4 times a week and was stuck. Turns out sleep is extremely important for weight loss too. I was not getting enough sleep. And since the work I do needs a lot of logical thinking, creativity and attention to detail, I just cannot disregard my sleep. It was a hard lesson to learn.