skizlock

I am not going to read the book so obviously my perspective will always be limited to this drama. I do read Xianxia but I don't think I would like to read it, now that I have watched it.

Altruism is a sham for the main couple as its just so narrow minded, they completely ignore the consequences of their actions on the larger scale. Simply speaking they are short-sighted.

That's why its o jarring, they are surrounded by deep characters which make long standing decisions with firm foundations but the plot armour forces the leads decisions to succeed by simply not exposing the consequences.

Perhaps its because of their era that they have a muted sense of righteousness but this is not described.

Essentially, this kind of story telling is a break for me. I understand that you have different perspective on this.

3a. The grain part for the military again shows their monstrously naive nature. They effectively drain precious grain from a county which faces the same realities theirs do. But they don't bat an eye when taking their stocks. They have already seen hunger and starvation at large scale when they were on the run. They still do not accept their malfeasance.

3b. This also negates what GJS gave as a justification to their employees about the donation. Clearly, the counties around them can easily supply 40% or more of their granary stocks - 300 tonnes compared to 450 tonnes confiscated in the grain scam which is roughly 50% of their capacity.

4. When LYR came to know that LZS is outside Yangzhou. she should have sent YSA to assassinate him. It was a massive oversight to leave him there when you know, how many he has killed and is particularly vulnerable.

Leads obviously have no qualms killing soldiers for their ends, I don't understand why they leave LZS alone for so long. He essentially suffers no attacks from them, its always him using them and they escaping his machinations. Essentially this makes him the best villain there is and his admiration/respect for LYR just makes him godly.

Idiosyncrasies like these continue till the end, I can list all of them but I think I have written enough.

2a. When they decided to donate everything and not tell everybody about it defeats the purpose. They were still regarded as extremely rich for the most part. If the plot armour did not make it work for them later, they would have been lynched by the mobs eventually, the same as they feared.

2b. This same decision to donate everything was not in line with their business personality. A shrewd businessman, even when donating, would ensure his own survival and future endeavour to survive painlessly. The whole drama of living modestly to that extent was completely unnecessary when there was no one who knew.

2c. Giving away your wealth, amounting to couple months of salary, to your servants does not mean they will survive. Especially when there are so many. They essentially threw them to the world's mercy. When a wealthy family goes down, hundreds to thousands suffer, this has been true since forever.

2d. Rewarding your employees effectively put a mini bullseye on them. The same thing the leads were fearful of, they essentially made many smaller targets for the mobs. Human nature is fickle, the show's overly idealistic view, hides its real face.

No complaints about LZS, I mean his humanity has been shown aplenty. Just perhaps maybe the grand reveal of the actual conflict between them been artificially delayed to the end being questionable.

I have problems with the leads decisions along the line.

1. The first one being choosing to leave the city, where they could instead develop their own private mercenary army or just expand their guards to at least a thousand. Its already evident, they have the situation of warring to their benefit and also the money needed, considering they used 375 ships along with crew to migrate.

Still all their shops were burned down, families massacred in the streets. And they assume no responsibility for them which alone shows the fickleness in their so called righteous agenda. At least accept your mistakes, not one confession throughout. But actually these are not mistakes, they should have known better, they are merchants, risen in a turbulent time. They know the realities of their era.

Drama #307:

I don't have much to say about this one, the couple romance is awesome. The villain is great. The schemes are interesting. The side characters are awesome. And then it all falls apart as you get past the first major twist.

Essentially for me, usually great romance can carry the worst of dramas, but only stupidity breaks up everything. And that's exactly what happens in this one, with every major decision from Episode 14.

All such decisions do not reflect the leads business nature nor their idealistic righteous agenda either. At every turn stupidity takes the prize and seemingly obvious correct decisions do not even make an appearance as a choice.

Even worse the writer makes these decisions work and ignores the obvious pitfalls. I have rarely ever seen a world where I regularly lose immersion due to the implausibility of it all. Its just that fundamentally broken.

To crush my hopes so badly, I penalize it with 7/10.

Man the stupidity actually started from E14, the first major twist.

I was frankly baffled that they had the money to hire 375 ships, crew included. But didn't bother to hire a sizeable mercenary army instead. Considering each ship would have at least 10-50 men, they could easily afford a thousand mercenaries and completely crush the opposition.

Then there was the wealth donation which was completely stupid and an easy way out for them, the trade off was also extremely unplausible for a business and a righteous family.

There was an unintended malicious intent in that decision. The unintentional nature is what actually makes this drama so stupid. With such a measure they essentially threw all their people under the bus. While they didn't even realize the predicament they are in due to greed. Where the young master already tells them what's gonna happen with mobs etc, he effectively moved the bulls eye to them.

The reaction from the MIL about losing everything she has accomplished throughout her life was also lacklustre and beyond belief.

The writers really made them chickens on the chopping block.

I did like her in few of her later dramas but yes this one makes me puke. So much over-acting, over the top cheesiness, cliche galore and nonsensical plots.

Just watching her in pyjamas while having a stranger in her house, makes this situation so unbelievable. Even if you want to retain tenancy, which was her legal right, but living with him as if he is your boyfriend, and not reporting to police of his illegal takeover, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it.

And then there is that irritating personality she is portraying with unrealistic amounts of cuteness and ear blowing shouts...

There is a "not interested" list, reviews and many comments at MDL, I think people just don't follow an organized approach in research about a drama, before deciding to give it time. When they don't find what they were expecting, they give a bad rating. Rather than adding tags, reviews, comments for future readers to better explain the plot or expose wrong genres/tags or simply vent.

If I would have been duped into watching this somehow through the comments, I would have given a long essay in comments and 7.0-8.5 rating.

For me, after reading many comments, I have concluded its not my type, as I want strong straight romance to couple anything - I have no tolerance for queer.

From where I came, the romance was mentioned in the synopsis, genre list, and from the poster I could see 3 couples so I was very hopeful but here reality was upside down. Even with this I felt a little betrayed so i can understand others feelings.

I may even come to like it but it will hold no rewatch value. Just like how it was with My Ajhussi, Chicago Typewriter, The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop etc.. I have watched many such series, looking for romance in various settings with serious backdrops, only to get betrayed but the drama itself was satisfying but not good enough to stay in my archives.

Generally <8.5, any Chinese series is a no go for me, it has been a consistent trend on MDL and whenever I did try something lower, it only became a disappointment. Because less than 2k people rated it by now that I did the effort to know about it. Frankly for selfish reasons I like this trend on MDL, I get to filter out most series.

Thanks for making the effort to tell why you didn't like it. I would have felt extremely betrayed after seeing the romance genre and from where I came, it did mention romantic relationships in the synopsis.

Unlike you, when I get duped to watch such dramas, I hate them with a passion. I don't care whether they have good acting or cinematography, my feelings, my entertainment factor, ultimately my time that I chose to give it, wasted, matters the most.

That's why I do extensive research before trying them out but sometimes fans just slip with their exaggerated descriptions, though rare but I do get duped.

There is no such thing as never make assumptions. Everything, every law, every theory, every regulation depends on many many assumptions. In time they do fail but that's just a natural evolutionary process. We cannot let go of taking those steps just because we don't know all the possible cases.

Same with speculations, some will be on the mark, some will not be on the mark but all of them will promote discussion on the problems of society or at least the ones perceived by the society as problems. All in all its beneficial regardless of the original conjecture being true or not.

The FL was made a prime example of how someone's relationship has numerous issues and hurdles that they have to cross through. Especially if the other party much more mature and much ahead of you in both life and career.

It was perfectly normal for the brother to manipulate her that way as he was from an environment which readies him for such games and in fact is a crucial skill for his future endeavours.

She getting manipulated and not understanding what's wrong shown the lack of experience and short sightedness of her age.

Though I do see this scenario as being a red flag for the ML and him still getting her was questionable at best.

You don't need to reply. Just clearing my thoughts. Here we have an audience after all.

We are indeed in agreement about cussing and the show's narrative.

About mature themes; it encompasses everything that needs a mature mind to understand and manage, it does not mean the material in itself oozes maturity. As even a bully scalding someone isn't a mature decision but the scene can only be handled by a mature mind.

Your over-reaction on perhaps only 2-3 minutes of inconsequential sexual gratuitousness in a 16 hour long series, and also relating it with something so degraded as porn, irked me.

You understand that nuances of emotion are not present in porn, in comparison to a well choreographed romance sequence with your favourite actors. But then again you generalize it as watching porn.

There are myriad reasons that productions may have had to make it work without it, not necessarily that the plot doesn't need it. I will not talk about what could be as that's of weak premise.

Any such mature theme for me presents a chance that the team may have taken risks and employed artistic adventurism to present a unique experience.

Drama #286:

This was a good show. There wasn't much thrill or mystery involved because of the way the FL handled everything. Actually I was put in a delusion of grandeur about it by the comments here. Suffice to say it didn't live up to those standards.

It is an odd show, I mean the depth it tries to go to and the darkness it indulges in, doesn't really reach the levels it requires. I always felt like something was missing. Perhaps that's where Korean censorship limits it. It did maintain a stable level of what you say interest for me which was on the high side but not so much that I would be glued to the screen.

The FL, the star of the show's personality due to her past trauma is the magnetic force that takes this drama to its climax. Which again is not something high on the spectrum as climaxes go. Simply speaking throughout there is this morbid stillness which continues till the end of the main arc.

The fabulous support as well as the villain gang is just phenomenal. They are not your typical 1D villains but people who have character, a life and goals. Each one has a story to tell and grow on.

The show is more about emotion IMO and not the actual revenge plot that it appears to depict. There is also a mature romance with all its subtleties and tension.

9/10

This show though certainly did not need them and I also questioned the need as well, suffice to say they were not shot with the same care as the rest. IMO they were shoe horned in it, I assume for some vested interest that wants the public to slowly accept it.

These can be meaningful for a story, both sex to depict deeper feelings / personality traits or just plain old commitment and the cuss words to depict the overall environment. And no you cannot just walk down the street or watch porn to experience the same, they are worlds apart.

Mature themes affords the writers much leeway in freedoms they can take to faithfully depict the story. That's exactly why this show has the depth it has, though still lacking very much in comparison to western shows which can do much darker.

For me too, it doesn't have to be a happy ending but it has to be a conclusive end. This future possibilities, I tend to overthink and spend days on end, fantasizing. Time that I can't afford to spend on such.

Fortunately, I usually have a trove of dramas lined up, and this time around I have The Glory to sate my thirst. Though I will still go through withdrawal from this drama, it was just that good and I left it at a stage that really would have had a saucy romance starting. Me being a sucker for romance doesn't help...

They are my true to life feelings. I had an inkling that things would not end well especially when Susu tried to cling with the ML at E18. So I came here to find out, much to my dismay that I have wasted 18 hours of my life.

I do not watch open ended dramas. I usually scour the comment section for specific keywords that I dread before trying any C or K drama. I like stories that are complete and end with a wholesome end. Having a novel doesn't matter, it may not have a translation or easy access.

Is it really an open ending?!

Dang! I have not made a mistake like this in so long... The time I skip reading comments, I find myself in an addicting, nerve wracking but ultimately inconclusive waste of time!

Bai Lu, ah, only you can make me make such a mistake...

Welcome to the world of KDrama where authors tend to exercise their artistic freedom at the expense of the viewers at the end of the series...

Ratings are from diverse groups of people while reviews rarely ever feature balanced participation from these groups.

Few people tend to write them, mostly those with strong feelings about the drama, largely positive ones and few bad or balanced ones as that needs a special kind of conviction to go through with.

That's exactly why even in retail, you may sell hundreds before you score one review... Believe me unless there is an incentive most people don't like to spend time on writing reviews. Especially when others can comment or react on your review. Giving a rating is easy and anonymous.

Also ratings can sway by a bad ending or an ending with not much exposition or out of the world changes or even actor scandals...

Reviewers tend to hold the whole drama into perspective could be good or bad depending on your tastes. Like I tend to skip dramas with open/tragic/sudden endings or if romance started very late, regardless of how good the drama was overall.

Drama #326:

A typical B-grade fair. You can't judge this drama like you do most of the titles here.

The only good actor is the ML, all else are just bad or so so. Villains are boring and frustratingly bad.

The criticisms about the FL are correct, she is obnoxious and self-destroying character. The age gap doesn't help either, she is too old for the role especially when they portray them in their younger days, its totally off.

The plots are abysmal and predictable to the extreme. In many such, the villain reveals itself early on and there is no suspense or thrill left when you can easily spot him among the crowds.

The world is even worse as the production prioritizes the glam over substance and plot appropriate setting. Like the FL wearing heals on police duty, running and chasing criminals throws this drama into absolute clown land. Then there is the police station which looks even more spacious than a multinational company's office. Even CIA, and NSA won't have such open wide spaces in their offices without purpose.

The production quality is cheap, there are very few locations, some I suspect are abandoned, and they even use CGI when travelling... All hallmarks of a budget constricted project are present.

The romance happens in an instant, I can't even justify it with their past. Yes, there is no courtship, except for some teasing and Boom they get together one sunny day. I was like how the hell did she not slap him across the face instead of turned her head in embarrassment...