3
19
3
virgievirgie
Lost in Dramaland
This review may contain spoilers
Big Production, Great Acting but very SLOW
Completed - 11/1/2021
"The Rebel Princess" indeed is a big-budget production, where Zhang Zi Yi herself invested in and recruited many world-class experts that she works with in the movies. The costumes, music, cinematography and sets are beautiful and elaborate. There is nothing you can criticize in its production value. The drama boasts a huge cast and their acting is superb. My #1 complaint of this drama is the slowness. It's not the plot that is slow and draggy, which happens in almost all long, historical C-drama. But I find the show itself is full of slow movements and dialogues (too many pauses). To binge-watch this slow 68-episode drama is very difficult. Maybe if I am watching this when it's broadcasted live and follow along week-to-week, I might have enjoyed this more.
Plot:
I enjoy the overarching main plot. There is a lot of court politics in this drama. Everyone wants a piece of the throne, whether they are royal or entitled to or not. All parents sacrifice their children for power, and they all do it in the name of "love". It's ironic that our main leads are not one of them, and yet they are probably the most qualified to bring peace to the nation. There are many subplots and I do enjoy how they weave together to contribute to the full story. As mentioned above, I personally find this drama to be too slow. If everything is sped up a little bit, it might be easier to binge-watch. However, I do understand that directors and producers are not making dramas for binge-watchers. But if you are a binge-watcher like me, just be aware. The drama also is narrated from FL/Ah Wu's point of view. It's a little interesting/weird that her monologues happen quite often, instead of just the beginning or ending of an episode. I feel that the pacing of the last 20 episodes is faster. Since the assassination, there is a lot more action. This event also started the strong finish of the drama. I greatly enjoy the ending (last 2-3 episodes) and feel that it brings closure to almost all storylines and characters.
Main Romance/Leads:
There are so many complaints about Zhang Zi Yi (ZZY) acting as an 15- year old girl. It is somewhat hard to forget that she's 42 (even if she's a beautiful and young-looking 42-year old woman). However, she only needs to act like a 15-year old for about 6-7 episodes. Once she's forced to marry our ML and all the events happened around that time, she is forced to grow up and doesn't act young anymore. In fact, I feel that her character grows up too fast and she becomes too mature, to match our older ML. A big selling point of this drama is our awesome male lead played by Zhou Yi Wei (ZYW). He is an amazing general and and an even better husband. The leads have a very mature and trusting relationship. ZYW brought this character to life. A minor complaint that I have is that we need more ZYW. There aren't enough scenes of him, and even less with him and ZZY. Our leads are separated from each other most of the time. Although the chemistry was good when they are together, their romance doesn't give me the same feels as in my other favorite shows "The Rise of the Phoenixes" or "Legend of Fu Yao". When they are together, they are too calm and mature. It's lacking some playfulness and lightness to this romance to hook me in.
Costumes & Production:
They must have spent a lot of their budget on costumes. I feel like ZZY has a new outfit each day or each episode. You can see they are elaborate and expensive (though I do not always like her style). I also particularly enjoy ZYW's black casual outfit. It fits him like a glove and he looks so dashing it in. Additionally, the red and black court officials outfits might be my most favorite court officials costumes in all of the historical dramas I've seen. It's such a nice combination - simple colors but work so well together when layered. All the ladies also have very nice costumes, but none can be compared to our female lead's. On the other hand, I am most impressed with the war and battle scenes. You can see that they spend money in hiring extras to be in these battles. When they say it's a big battle, you see a big battle and not CGI fake people or comics (looking at you "The Long Ballad"). The Mount Lianyu battle is especially amazing and greatly shot. That battle is one of my favorite events - from the white horse running to the black horse and towards the enemies, to the tragic death and self-sacrifice of the general, and the black horse kneeling down to get our male lead on its back. Everything is perfect.
OST & Dubbing:
I really enjoy the background music in this drama. The music complements the scenes so well. The few songs that were sung were nice as well and I especially like the duet. I don't feel that the songs were overplayed but just enough at the right time. One of my personal pet peeves is when the music is so loud that it overpowers the actors dialog. For the most part, we don't have this problem here. However, because of the live recording, I feel that at times, the music is a tiny bit louder than I like. Speaking of live recording, it's a pleasure to be able to listen to almost all actors real voice, either live or post-production dubbing. Only a few actors and actresses were dubbed, mainly because they do not have the Mainland Chinese accents.
"The Rebel Princess" indeed is a big-budget production, where Zhang Zi Yi herself invested in and recruited many world-class experts that she works with in the movies. The costumes, music, cinematography and sets are beautiful and elaborate. There is nothing you can criticize in its production value. The drama boasts a huge cast and their acting is superb. My #1 complaint of this drama is the slowness. It's not the plot that is slow and draggy, which happens in almost all long, historical C-drama. But I find the show itself is full of slow movements and dialogues (too many pauses). To binge-watch this slow 68-episode drama is very difficult. Maybe if I am watching this when it's broadcasted live and follow along week-to-week, I might have enjoyed this more.
Plot:
I enjoy the overarching main plot. There is a lot of court politics in this drama. Everyone wants a piece of the throne, whether they are royal or entitled to or not. All parents sacrifice their children for power, and they all do it in the name of "love". It's ironic that our main leads are not one of them, and yet they are probably the most qualified to bring peace to the nation. There are many subplots and I do enjoy how they weave together to contribute to the full story. As mentioned above, I personally find this drama to be too slow. If everything is sped up a little bit, it might be easier to binge-watch. However, I do understand that directors and producers are not making dramas for binge-watchers. But if you are a binge-watcher like me, just be aware. The drama also is narrated from FL/Ah Wu's point of view. It's a little interesting/weird that her monologues happen quite often, instead of just the beginning or ending of an episode. I feel that the pacing of the last 20 episodes is faster. Since the assassination, there is a lot more action. This event also started the strong finish of the drama. I greatly enjoy the ending (last 2-3 episodes) and feel that it brings closure to almost all storylines and characters.
Main Romance/Leads:
There are so many complaints about Zhang Zi Yi (ZZY) acting as an 15- year old girl. It is somewhat hard to forget that she's 42 (even if she's a beautiful and young-looking 42-year old woman). However, she only needs to act like a 15-year old for about 6-7 episodes. Once she's forced to marry our ML and all the events happened around that time, she is forced to grow up and doesn't act young anymore. In fact, I feel that her character grows up too fast and she becomes too mature, to match our older ML. A big selling point of this drama is our awesome male lead played by Zhou Yi Wei (ZYW). He is an amazing general and and an even better husband. The leads have a very mature and trusting relationship. ZYW brought this character to life. A minor complaint that I have is that we need more ZYW. There aren't enough scenes of him, and even less with him and ZZY. Our leads are separated from each other most of the time. Although the chemistry was good when they are together, their romance doesn't give me the same feels as in my other favorite shows "The Rise of the Phoenixes" or "Legend of Fu Yao". When they are together, they are too calm and mature. It's lacking some playfulness and lightness to this romance to hook me in.
Costumes & Production:
They must have spent a lot of their budget on costumes. I feel like ZZY has a new outfit each day or each episode. You can see they are elaborate and expensive (though I do not always like her style). I also particularly enjoy ZYW's black casual outfit. It fits him like a glove and he looks so dashing it in. Additionally, the red and black court officials outfits might be my most favorite court officials costumes in all of the historical dramas I've seen. It's such a nice combination - simple colors but work so well together when layered. All the ladies also have very nice costumes, but none can be compared to our female lead's. On the other hand, I am most impressed with the war and battle scenes. You can see that they spend money in hiring extras to be in these battles. When they say it's a big battle, you see a big battle and not CGI fake people or comics (looking at you "The Long Ballad"). The Mount Lianyu battle is especially amazing and greatly shot. That battle is one of my favorite events - from the white horse running to the black horse and towards the enemies, to the tragic death and self-sacrifice of the general, and the black horse kneeling down to get our male lead on its back. Everything is perfect.
OST & Dubbing:
I really enjoy the background music in this drama. The music complements the scenes so well. The few songs that were sung were nice as well and I especially like the duet. I don't feel that the songs were overplayed but just enough at the right time. One of my personal pet peeves is when the music is so loud that it overpowers the actors dialog. For the most part, we don't have this problem here. However, because of the live recording, I feel that at times, the music is a tiny bit louder than I like. Speaking of live recording, it's a pleasure to be able to listen to almost all actors real voice, either live or post-production dubbing. Only a few actors and actresses were dubbed, mainly because they do not have the Mainland Chinese accents.
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