tsuyoi_hikari

8/10 - Despite all the positive reviews that the drama got, as someone who is a bit picky, I found that many of the plots were never being explored to its full potential. The great premise was there, but the writer obviously lacked the capabilities to expand the script to be even greater. This mostly masked by the great portrayal of the characters but there are many instances on they just glared through the matter with no justification and explanation. The great offender would be the Kung Fu of Ice that Xing-er possessed which were never explored. Not to the mention the Leader of the Afterlife Camp which seemed to have no problem when Yuwen Yue destroying his agency and took away his spies (lol) to the Moustache Man who doesn’t seemed to have purpose but just love to create trouble and influencing the politic in Wei, Yan & Liang states. Not to mention the useless Liang spies that despite their great potential and capabilities -- never actually achieve anything despite being the real mastermind of the conflict between Yan & Wei. But despite that I'm was adamant to give the drama 7.5/10 for being entertaining but in the end, it deserved 8/10 because of the great ending and how heartbroken it made me feels.

4/10 - The whole thing is bad. Just terrible. The budget is low and the costume just look like cheap costumes people wear when they cosplay at comic con.

7/10 - I don't know, usually movies that involved songs and bands have good music from my experience so far but only one of the songs in this movie stood out for me. The overall movie is okay but not something I will watch again for sure.

The message about the sacrifices that mothers are willing to make for their children is obviously the highlight of the whole story. I actually really like the end as you may not end up with someone who you love the most but life could be happy and fulfilled as well if you ended up with someone who love you unconditionally.

One of the few dramas where I rate 10/10.

You should! Literally the best C-dramas I have ever watched. The mind games in Chinese historical dramas are in another level compared to Korean or Japanese historical dramas. You gonna need to pause to understand/appreciate how these people using strategies and mind games to defeat their opponents.

8.5/10 - Its been such a looooong time since I've seen a good mystery drama like this! The last time is Maou & Ryusei no Kizuna which is like 12 years ago.

The plot is very interesting and the plot twist at the end is very unexpected (kudos to who manage to guess since the writer actually gave us various hints in the script). The leads' sexual tension is great (lol) and I love how despite they are not supposed to love each other, their relationship is not toxic at all. They comes terms to their feeling very early and everything moves very fast.

The girl is so pretty -- honestly the prettiest J-actress I have ever seen in my decades of watching J-dramas. And I have no idea who is the male lead but he emotes really well so all his emotional scenes are great.

I finished the drama in one day since it is that addicting. And those Japanese sweets -- I'm willing to pay good money to taste all of it! 8D

I guess it comes to the question on who the King really fall in love with. The King starts to waver when the found out The Queen's grace behind her actions. She appears as someone arrogant & unruly (Bong Hwan) but she did something that help him with his dream of creating a better Joseon (So Young). So it was always been So Young's grace that made him fall in love with the Queen while Bong Hwan's un-princess like behaviors are the flaws (as he mentioned during his confession) that he accepted once he knew he had fallen in love with the Queen. In the end, it was So Young, the same little girl that he met when he was at his lowest point of his life -- the one who moves his heart -- the girl who fought for justice when she doesn’t need to considering the high status she’s in. But the writer did point out in the end that the King felt something is missing (Bong Hwan) when he looked at the Queen's Dictionary which I personally think is a nice touch to indicate he also appreciate Bong Hwan as well.

There's no injustice was done to Bong Hwan as once So Young is gone, his feelings towards the King is gone as well. His loves for the ladies didn’t fade even when the Queen finds himself falling for the King in the later part of the drama indicating the real Bong Hwan has never been gone -- he just co-exist with So Young at the same time. He still feel excited when he sees pretty women and wanted to be close to them even when he already accepted his confusing sexual identity. So now So Young is no longer part of him, he no longer feel attracted to the King anymore as can be seen at the end which he appears to happy & contented. Now So Young is no longer in his body, he just return to his former self.

And So Young has always had part of Bong Hwan's personality as well since in the beginning. Remember when she was called 'witch' by the court maids? When the King saw her terrorizing her court maid, it didn’t feel weird since she was like that as well before Bong Hwan entered her body. But after that, like how she influences Bong Hwan's to be more kinder and towards righteousness, Bong Hwan also influences her as well like how she can expressed herself more (through swearing) and now she can expressed more radical idea like court maids can get married at the end of the drama.

So due to this, I feel its truly a great ending. Everyone got what they want at the end and no injustice was done to any characters. They could go through the route that Bong Hwan accepted his fate to be in the Queen's body forever or Bong Hwan is the reincarnation of the Queen from the past life (which explain why his feelings to the ladies and the King legit as they are the same persons) but the writer chose this route which in my opinion is great as well.

There are a lot of audiences that are not satisfied with the ending. But for me, the ending is great due to the various hints the writer keeps throwing to us since the beginning of the drama which is, So Young has always been part Bong Hwan since the very beginning -- which influence both his behaviors and actions. And her presence is more apparent when she fainted and fell into vegetative state. So all the romantic actions we seen later are all her own doing and not Bong Hwan. You see Bong Hwan being confuse and hate those actions since it was always been So Young's doing. Bong Hwan just always tries to justified himself everytime he does something against his will to console himself since he can’t understand his action either (like imagining Hong Yeon when the Queen and the King had their first night together and any other various instances). So Young's memories, So Young's feelings, So Young's sync actions with her father, So Young's music ability, So Young's embroidery skills are the many hints that the writer throw to us.

The biggest hints:

Hint #1 - When Bong Hwan left the Queen's body in Episode 20, So Young knew he was gone since she cant felt his presence anymore -- she wasn’t ecstatic to get back, but she just felt he is gone since she never left her body in the first place. This indicates that she always there in her own body influencing all Bong Hwan's sub-conscience, behaviors and actions and do things against his wills.

Hint #2 - Bong Hwan was revealed as someone who never do justice (based on his conversation with Secretary Han on the balcony). This is the biggest hint that show us that all the helps the King received from the beginning from the Queen has always been So Young's doing. He influences Bong Hwan to do that way and in the end, Bong Hwan benefited from it as well and he become kinder and more towards justice and changed his destiny as well in the future.

Hint #3 - So Young never revealed to anyone that someone took over her body. Why? Because she know that she was always there in the beginning influencing Bong Hwan's behaviors and actions. Bong Hwan started to get So Young's memories one by one and can feel her emotions (thats why he knew that the Queen loves the King since the beginning and never love Byeong In). This later intensified when even when the Queen think, it was in So Young's voice instead of Bong Hwan. And later, the kiss, the first night which was done against Bong Hwan's will further proves this. And when we reached the end of the drama, we started to see less Bong Hwan and more of the Queen in term of action and decision makings. The personality of the Queen might be Bong Hwan, but the sub-conscious has always been So Young. Thats why she didnt feels guilty towards the King as well since she knew it was her that the King falls in love with.

Thanks!

Yes, I plan to watch this soon since its so popular. :D

China is very strict with gay storyline so can I know how this series get the greenlight? I never thought this kind of drama is possible to come out from China lol even for a web series.

Ohh can you give examples of the false political image? The dramas that I have watched usually doesnt have this content so I'm curious to know which dramas has them.

Anyone can recommend me modern C-RomCom without any of the above? Like a totally healthy relationship between the leads where they are not even one non-consensual behaviors even for character development sake? I think costume dramas in general have better healthy relationships and thats why I tend to enjoy them more..

'I Cannot Hug You' is the only one that comes in my mind so far. I thought its awesome how the FL is sexually frustrated (lol) with the lack of touch since the ML is OCD but still can control herself. XD

In Cute Programmer, mostly everyone is blaming the male lead for sleeping with her while he's drunk lol and not the other way around. The male lead certainly do the first move and she consented (and taking advantage?) of it but he is drunk and not in his right mind. I wonder if you sleep with your drunk husband/wife (not the pass out drunk), is it mean that you do something wrong ? It certainly a grey area to me tbh.

Thank you so much for this article! I just couldn't agree for more esp this part:

'A downside to many of the oh so fluffy C-dramas since they often come with the bitter side of it, often portraying men in need of a lesson or two in consensual relations.'

I think it got to do with writers and their need to put all these non-consensual behaviors to move their plots. They also put those behaviors in since they view assertive and confident men as attractive (yes, but cant we do it consensually instead of forcing it? :(). This doesn't only happen in C-dramas and but in other dramas as well which shows that toxic relationships are okay and normalized. But at least in Cdramas, these toxic behaviors are shown as wrong and the male leads learn from it so I guess I was kind of okay as it is shown as character development but I just wish they just dont put it in the first place.

I love my C-fluffs. I honestly think they're the best which make me really love C-RomCom in general. Like you said, the guys are usually so sweet and gentle with one non-consensual behavior. :P I mean whyyyyy. Why you have to taint my fave character lol

I was rolling my eyes so much to all the pretentious slow dialogs between the characters in the last 2 episodes of the drama. I know Ji Ho has something under her sleeve for pulling the things she did at the end of this drama. But she did it at the expense of hurting many people esp Se Hee. This is probably the most ridiculous noble idiocy I have ever seen anyone pulled out. Other dramas noble idiocy at least make sense but this one didnt -- it didnt come out deep but instead very pretentious.

Ji Ho appear to be someone selfish and hard to please. First, she keeps shoving her feelings towards Se Hee despite knowing the fact the kind of marriage that they entered. When she hurts, she passive aggressively hurt him in return. And when he finally like her back, she's wanted out of the marriage because she loved him so much. Yeaaaaah, right. >.> The fact that she knew Se Hee's sad past and still do those things to him make her even more less likable. Se Hee in the other hand seemed like a pushover. The fact that he let both of the girls that he love push him around like that make him look like an idiot.

Stop romanticise emotional torture. It really getting on my nerve when writers did that.

Thanks!

I find C-dramas are more interesting in term of storyline so thats why I stuck with it now. There's so many dramas I want to watch but so little time. :D

Oh is it? The whole one character in one body is actually fun since it caused a lot of confusion to the ML -- esp the other personality is a lover of an enemy. But he knew since the beginning which one was her but it took quite a while for him to believe they are two different persons since after all, it didnt make sense lol.

The Eternal Love 2 is seriously an upgrade than the first season. I rated the first 7.5/10 but the second season deserved 9.5/10 -- that one is just straight up quality production with interesting plot (with absolutely beautiful cinematography). The third season much more hilarious and sad but seriously fun in all level. Its a drama full of fluff so you most likely just gonna enjoy it without much heartache or frustration. My fave dramas are usually not romance type but this one I truly love since it just straight up romantic with full of skinship. They act like normal husband and wife would.

You can watch second & third seasons without watching the first (and can understand the storyline without any problem). But you probably gonna enjoy it more if you understand how deep is their love and why they took certain decisions for each other (this one all explored in the first season). But since you actually try to watch the first and dropped it, then I would say just straight up watch the second season since they did explain everything again when the drama starts.

Oh no!! Thats the worst. I love this type of dramas but I dont know whether I can stand this pettiness OTL

Can you rec similar dramas like this?

Not historical but Xian Xia drama The Eternal Love 2 & The Eternal Love 3. ML only loves FL and the drama is just full of fluffs from the beginning till the end. I still considers both dramas as my fave romance dramas of all time since how not petty is their relationship with each other. A relationship goals without a doubt.