wildtiger393
London, United Kingdom
Unique blend of different genres and excels in all of them
The show has a good mix of different elements - romance, thriller, mystery, comedy, business drama etc. None of them feel "tacked on", they feel like a serious part of the drama. For example the business discussions get quite technical about financial things etc. The thrilling scenes really get my heart pounding. The mysteries have lots of plot twists. The romantic scenes can be amazingly touching (especially proposal scene), etc.The pacing of this show is really great. It starts off and quite quickly gets to be running at 110% speed, then suddenly just over half way through it slows down and there are some light, romantic episodes. And then it ramps up again to a big finale. I really liked the way it was structured.
This is the 4th C-Drama I've finished so I'm not an expert but I do appreciate this show not falling into common bad practices. Such as misunderstandings which last for many episodes (all misunderstandings are quickly resolved) or plot holes being ignored (everything gets a satisfying explanation).
There are sooo many comments about the FL's acting but it didn't bother me personally. I should mention that I'm not really someone who notices acting skills (in other shows including US produced shows, I haven't noticed bad actors until people pointed it out to me). But to me, the way she acted just seemed very comfortable with the ML. I liked that.
One criticism I would have is that there are no real side couples. They tease two potential side couples but it never really amounts to anything. Because of that, some of the scenes with the supporting characters just ended up feeling a bit pointless. I think the supporting characters could have been cast differently to create more believable chemistry.
The OST is amazing, lots of relaxing romantic songs, including some with English lyrics.
Overall I think you should definitely watch this show, it's a great story which kept me entertained to the end. I don't usually watch things again but if I did, I would probably watch it again, just as "comfort food" because it's very sweet.
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My favorite C-Drama to date
For this show, the most important thing to me is the story. It has everything from high-stakes business, to romance, to complex family situations. The business storylines are particularly notable - I haven't seen any other show do such a good job of showing office politics and strategizing between two rival companies.The drama can also be touching at times, and genuinely brought tears to my eyes on multiple occasions, especially around two thirds of the way through.
Character development is really strong - in general, characters have two sides to them and nobody is "completely good" (with possible exception of Yang Mi's character) or "completely bad". There are multiple character arcs, and some characters who are villains at the start turn out to be very good by the end and vice-versa. These arcs are believable in the sense that you can see the motivations and causes of why people change over time.
The music is something that annoyed me in general, as the score can sometimes be too cheesy and ruin the mood of some scenes. (Although it's better than some other dramas I watched which had almost no music at all. There has to be a balance.) But the music is redeemed by the excellent OST. There are 5 songs - 4 of them are recorded by each of the 4 lead actors, and the last one is by the main male and female lead as a duet. They are great songs, each with its own mood which fits that character quite well (for example, the song recorded by the actor who plays Ling Tian is all about whisking a girl off her feet and taking her to fly away - kind of a show of male dominance, while the song recorded by the actress who plays Lai Xue is all about trying to determine if a romance was really true or just superficial.)
The ending of the show was good, but could have been a lot better in my opinion. It wasn't as emotionally moving as some of the earlier episodes.
One of my biggest problems with the show was that certain events happened off screen, which would be really nice to have seen. I won't mention what they were here to avoid spoilers, but I'll put a separate comment about that with spoiler tags.
Overall, I really loved the show, although it still has some minor flaws. I don't often watch shows twice, but for this one I probably would, as so much happens and I'll enjoy reliving the ups and downs.
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Mostly enjoyable, but weird story issues
I watched this as I wanted to get into The Lost Tomb franchise and start from the beginning. I haven't seen any of the other shows yet, but I understand they are generally longer (by episode count). I did appreciate that this season was only 10 episodes, easy to get through and well-paced.The characters are good - even Chastity, who some other reviewers criticized. I felt the acting was good, and every character had a purpose (comic value or intrigue).
The production values and OST were just okay, nothing special there in my opinion.
The story was mostly interesting, and surprisingly varied for a 10 episode show (including story sections in the tomb as well as outside it, as well as a pretty long sequence set in historical China). However the series was majorly let down by some weird plot issues - basically stuff which happened and was never explained. I'm sure there are some things that will be explained in future series, but others that I'm pretty sure won't be. For example, early in the series the characters travel through a water tunnel to get to a village and barely make it through alive, but when they get to that village they have electricity, food etc. Which begs the question how can they have all the modern conveniences if they are so cut off from the rest of the world. This is never explained. There are multiple other examples of this.
Overall it was worth watching to get an introduction to The Lost Tomb franchise, and it was mostly good (especially the last couple of episodes) but plot issues led to me feeling a bit frustrated by it.
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Starts off really great but trails off and has disappointing ending
This is the first historical c-drama I've watched to the end. At the start I was really hooked, due to the sets, costumes, thrilling story, plot twists, music and some great characters. However as the show went on, particularly in the second half, I became less enthused.The series is 53 episodes but this kind of breaks down into 6 or 7 sub stories which are only loosely related. For example, one story is about an illegal weapons factory, another is about fighting a war with a rival northern state. I felt like I was watching multiple seasons of a show rather than one complete story.
The characters are generally good, but there are some characters I dislike to varying degrees. One of the FL's maids is particularly annoying and is clearly meant to add comic effect but it just falls flat. Also, two of the major villains of the show are presented in a way that they are, for the most part, completely emotionless, and keep a constant facial expression and tone. This does make them seem more "evil", but on the other hand leads to them being more two-dimensional characters.
Characters I particularly liked were the ML's brother (Prince Jingling), and FL's parents, siblings and siblings in law. They are fleshed out a lot more, and also have some really happy moments and touching moments.
The OST is really good but it does end up getting quite repetitive by the end of the show. Some musical score seems to be repeated in almost every episode, which leads to it having much less effect than when it was first heard.
As mentioned above I love the sets and costumes, but again, by the end I felt they were too repetitive. The majority of the show takes place in two or three locations. Also, the costumes worn are pretty much the same every episode (with the exception of FL). I felt like this show was produced on a low budget in the second half.
In terms of the story arcs mentioned above, they are mostly good, but some of the story towards the end is less interesting or not satisfying.
The ending was also really disappointing to me - it felt like it was just "tacked on" and involved a plot that didn't have much relation to the storylines throughout the series. It also left a lot open to interpretation and so was quite confusing without providing proper closure. I think the show would have been much better if the final episode was never made.
Overall I still don't regret watching the show as most of it I really enjoyed. But the show could have been a lot better and ultimately left me feeling disappointed, but with still some great moments to remember. If I ever do rewatch it, I might split into two or more parts to keep it more fresh, and also skip the final episode (and the last scene of the penultimate episode) entirely.
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