Reviews

The Last Jasmine because I'm not rewatching the whole show

I became a huge fan of Ryan Cheng for his role in “My Journey to You” and decided to give this one a try. The drama is overall…mid. I enjoyed some parts, but took issue with most.

Story [5/10]: The story has intriguing complexities, but fails miserably in its execution. This show would have been way better if it had focused on the two leads' pasts and stories and upped the villains' game. There is never a time when our leads are beaten by the villains in this show, who are annoying at best and cowardly at worst. I thought at least one of the Marquis’ sons would become a worthy opponent, but no, they just led common lives, and we never saw them again. At times, side stories and subplots are okay distractions, but when they stray and are left open-ended, incomplete, and rushed, they only ruin your main plot. For a show where the leads are exceptionally smart, surprisingly, it wasn’t mentally stimulating enough.

The development of Ye Li and Ye Ying’s relationship was fun to watch. In their last meeting, Ye Ying had said that if Ye Li ever needed a place to stay away from Prince Ding’s mansion, Ye Li was welcome to stay with her. I low-key wished Ye Li had done this during the 5 months Xiuyao had been back at the border. It would make sense because she wasn’t a fan of being dragged all over the city by Lady Wen (Xiuyao’s sister-in-law), so she could have hid out at Ye Ying’s for a bit. But at the same time, we don’t know where Ye Ying was because after Mo Jingli ditched her, we don’t know if she simply went back home or maybe stayed in Mo Jingli’s mother's hometown (like to wait for him to come back).

My biggest issue with the latter part of the story is how Princess Lingyun was assassinated. Mind you, she was praised for single-handedly putting her brother on the throne by defeating powerful enemies. She’s so powerful that the people of our leads’ feared hers. Her death was so random and rushed that I thought there was going to be a plot twist where she would survive. But no, she was assassinated by her servant-assassin, and our FL, Ye Li, was framed for it. The annoying thing is that NO ONE, including Ye Li, spoke of the maid who got her throat cut right before Su Zuidie put the knife in Ye Li’s hand. Like, why would Ye Li kill her own maid? What happened to the maid? She introduced herself, then was killed shortly after; it doesn’t make sense… We also don’t know what happened when her people went home because Su Zuidie was rescued and no one seemed to be looking for her for killing their beloved princess. Lingyun was a very cool character, too bad only Feng Zhiyao recognized that.

Also, we never got to see how Mo Xiuyao pushed Mo Jingli back; we were just told Xiuyao was successful after success. This not only screamed ‘low budget’ but also rushed the ending and eliminated any opportunities for us to see how Xiuyao felt about leading battles again. I don’t want to hear that Mo Jingli went from 50,000 soldiers to 500 men because Xiuyao was that good. I want to see how Xiuyao did it, even though I know Mo Jingli doesn’t hold a candle to Xiuyao’s strategies and fighting abilities.

The final battle was weak. The action was good but could be better. Also, why did they keep breaking the statues into three perfect pieces? Looked like knocking over stacked boxes.

So again, Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao’s pasts were very interesting (on the surface), but the execution was meh. Especially for Xiuyao’s past.

Acting/Cast [8/10]: I have no complaints about the cast, overall. The acting felt stiff at times, especially in the facial region. When the Marquis was exposed, Guo Jin couldn’t be bothered to show any emotion, be it relief or anger. Another issue with the show was that it didn’t seem to know how to handle its large cast, so most characters either appeared only a few times or were written out because the plot needed them gone. There was chemistry between Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao, but at the same time, there was very little harmony. I love it when main characters have lives outside of each other, but this was the case from start to finish; there was little room for teamwork between Mo Xiuyao and Ye Li as husband and wife.

The character of Mo Jingli/Prince Li was seriously pathetic and horribly designed. Despite being our final boss, he is boring. He attempted suicide multiple times throughout the show to gain sympathy from our married female lead while secretly leading a rebellion. I wouldn't be able to rely on or follow someone like that for very long, someone who would try to kill himself over a woman many times. He also kept saying, "if fate has it, we'll meet again" to Yeying/Princess Li (Yeli's younger half-sister), as if it meant anything. He had no feelings for her, so what would change if they met again? It also didn’t make sense for him to say that because there were only two final outcomes for him: become King or die trying. He can’t meet her again if he’s dead, and meeting her again as King will do what exactly? Anyway, Guo Jin [Empress Dowager], Maruis Muyang, and Qin Zheng [Consort Dowager] were all awful villains. Qin Zheng showed potential and was portrayed as a clever, cold woman, but her primary role was to withhold the original edict and ultimately give it up when Guo Jin didn’t return her sisterly love.

Music [10/10]: I don’t mind any of the songs, really. I wasn’t in love with any of them, but they weren’t annoying or overused. There were times when audio and BGM would just cut out, and I complained about not using fade-outs, but that’s a personal preference.

Rewatch value [2/10]: Every time Bai Lu (Ye Li) was on screen, I’d unconsciously whisper “wow, she’s so beautiful,” but unfortunately, I won’t sit through the series a second time even though she is stunning. I may rewatch certain episodes or scenes down the line, but not the entire thing again.

Overall, “The First Jasmine: MoLi” gets a 6.5 from me. I admit that the only time I was truly bored was when Mo Jingli/Prince Li was on screen, so the whole show is easy to binge. I just wasn’t a fan of how things unraveled, so the 6.5 is a personal preference and not what I believe the show is (an 8). If you don’t have the same picky issues as me, you’d most likely enjoy the show.

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A Dark Historical Drama That Keeps You Hooked

This series grabbed my attention from the very first scene. The dark, stormy opening with the heavy rain, eerie atmosphere, and suspenseful soundtrack immediately sets the tone for a gripping historical dark fantasy. The cinematography is stunning, the attention to detail in the royal costumes and palace settings is exceptional, and it's clear a tremendous amount of care and effort went into bringing this world to life.

Set in a kingdom where supernatural forces quietly lurk behind the palace walls, the story follows a powerful ghost slayer with extraordinary spiritual abilities who joins forces with a court lady cursed with the ability to see and communicate with spirits. As they investigate the growing darkness surrounding the East Palace and the royal family, hidden secrets, restless ghosts, and sinister conspiracies begin to surface, creating a thrilling mystery that constantly keeps you guessing.

The blend of action, historical drama, horror, and fantasy is executed brilliantly. The supernatural elements feel genuinely unsettling, while the royal intrigue and mystery add even more depth to the story. Episode 1-5 was fantastic from start to finish, with strong performances, excellent pacing, and enough suspense to leave me eager for the next episode.

If the quality stays this high, this is shaping up to be one of the best historical supernatural dramas on Netflix.

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Better on the second watch after 10 years

Rewatching this after maybe 10 years made me appreciate it more. It’s just so classic and the feels are so good. This was kdrama on crack, they really made you love hate then love then hate the characters throughout the episodes and they mad you cry, laugh, mad, sad, confused every episode. They were just doing it for the drama! I love it 😂

mind you my MDL notes in this drama is literally just “our crown prince saved this drama” i was whipped for ju jihoon lmao but gotta say our crown princess was also killing it and hyorin’s charcter development was a nice surprise even after rewatching it also the OST is banger!

(changing my rating from 7 to 9)

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This will be one of my comfort dramas I rewatch a lot

I never mention or care about the music in a drama, but the music in this one was absolutely amazing. Every single song was truly touching and memorable. It really added to the atmosphere of the whole drama. I’ll definitely be buying the soundtrack.

The Storyline
What stands out in this drama is its originality. There are no cliche childhood connections between the leads, obsessed second leads, helpless females needing to be saved, love triangles, or any other common cliche storylines. It was refreshing to have an original storyline about two people connecting over their shared love of murder mystery games and matching wits. And the murder mystery games were high tech AI games that were fun to watch. I loved the originality of the storyline, it was refreshing.

The characters
I liked that the female lead was strong, confident in herself and always stood up for what she believed in. She was also very smart and figured a lot of stuff out before the male lead did. He respected her intelligence and even relied on it. The female lead is stuck in a boring job that fails to peak her interest or challenge her intellect. She learns that it’s okay to put herself first sometimes and decides to switch careers despite her parents opposition. Her journey is about finding what she wants out of life and making the necessary changes to achieve her life’s goals. The male lead had a traumatic childhood and wants to clear his father’s name and avenge his death. He trusts no one and is so focused on the past that he’s isolated himself from everyone. His journey is about rectifying the wrongs in his past so he can start living for his future. He also has to learn how to trust others and communicate better if he wants to have meaningful relationships.

The Romance
The romance in this drama is really well done. There isn’t any insta love or love at first sight. The relationship grows organically and there’s no noble idiocy either. And I like that they don’t wait until the last minute to get together. They get together midway through the drama then have to work on communicating and understanding each other better. There’s also lots of hugs, kisses, princess carrying, piggyback rides, etc. If you like lots of skinship in your romance dramas you won’t be disappointed with this one.

Character growth
I appreciated how every character had depth and was well fleshed out. Everyone had immense growth as the drama unfolded too. Character growth and development is important to me in a drama. Shallow characters that never learn a lesson make a drama boring. This drama was anything but boring.

Overall thoughts
This drama had an excellent storyline, there were no cliches, it had a little bit of angst but not too much, the romance was excellent, the acting was top notch and the music was really good. My only complaint is that it got a little slow in the middle. It picked up in the last few episodes but the middle dragged for me. For that reason I’m giving it 9 out of 10 stars. It’s almost perfect but not quite. I highly recommend it. I expect this to be one of my comfort dramas I rewatch when I want to lose myself in a great drama.

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Lighthearted, but also kind of lackluster and sloppy

I almost quit this show after 6 episodes, but some online advice suggested waiting it out past 10. I do think it gets better after episode 10- a new chapter starts for the FL and all the abrupt and emotionally void developments before that can simply be treated as premise- but unfortunately the show itself is still not that good.

My main issue is probably that the main characters are really one-dimensional and uninteresting. The show is very focused on the FL, but she’s as generic as they get, a “good person” in the most direct and bland way possible: she wants to be an official to serve the people.

In principle this concept (career-building power woman) could be done well, it’s just poorly executed here. Her desire to help the common people is way too emphasized and seems to be her only defining feature. She just cheerfully persists in the face of blatant prejudiced mistreatment. She doesn’t have much other personality, nor does she have any particular abilities or good ideas. I didn’t actually dislike her, I just didn’t particularly like or care about her.

And yet two guys are head over heels in love with her. One is very green flag- just wants to help her achieve her dream- and the other is very red flag- keeps trying to help her but can’t seem to understand basic concepts of morality. Both ML and SML, like the FL, felt to me like one-dimensional stereotypes taken to the extreme. Their romantic entanglements are a weak part of the story because they’re not properly built up, nor is Fan Yun extraordinary enough to merit all this- I simply could not understand why they were both so obsessed with her- yet unfortunately this aspect is also quite central to the plot.

By the way, the ML is a “governor”, but he seemed more like an emperor to me (court, eunuchs, palace, deference, etc), which he also was in the source material. I found everything made more sense and also felt more impactful if I just mentally replaced “governor” with “emperor”.

This show does have a lot of side characters I like- fun and interesting, many helping to contribute to an overall lighthearted tone. For example, the ML’s two lovable ministers. The second romance is also not bad, particularly because Wei Ying is chaos. But many of the side characters seem to get dropped and their stories feel incomplete.

Which brings me to my next complaint. I think the plot, in addition to being overall boring, is just sloppy. There are some pacing issues with many things developing too quickly, and then- setting aside meaningfulness, how about just tying up your storylines? The show isn’t completely incoherent, but some story arcs seemed to move on without proper explanation (like the epidemic), and some characters are given two seconds of development and then dropped. The villain situation is also somewhat confusing and muddled, which isn’t helped by Fan Yun being so cheerful about being mistreated.

I do credit this show for having a fun, lighthearted feel, which I thought is integrated and executed well. It made me actually enjoy a lot of the show despite some of my other problems with it. There are also some genuinely heartfelt moments that made me feel moved or touched.

But I don’t think these are enough to offset the sloppy writing or the boring and lackluster plot. I may have surface-level enjoyed the lighthearted tone, but I had to watch the show at accelerated speed, and I couldn’t stand more than maybe 1 episode a day before I got bored. To be fair, it worked out well for a period of my life when I didn’t have much time to watch and being properly addicted to a show would have been inconvenient.

For the acting, I think it’s actually pretty good. Joseph Zeng does comedic expressions really well. Li Yitong is very pretty but I felt her character is too bland for her to do anything with it. The supporting cast also did quite well, but that can’t save a plot.

I don’t think the production is that good. Some of the scene transitions look really funny and a lot of the fight scenes are weird, too. I saw people defend that it’s a bit of an older production, but come on, it’s not like standards were that different a couple of years ago.

The styling and costumes look good- everyone looks good and the makeup is not too heavy. I also like the music. I think the BGM is fine but I really love the OST, several songs made it onto my permanent playlist. But again, can’t save the plot.

By the way, I am not familiar with the source material, though I understand it’s quite popular. In the beginning I read some reddit posts explaining some of the character backgrounds (since it wasn’t properly developed in this drama) and I was surprised at how much more depth and meaning they had in the original. But I stopped looking into that because it was turning the characters into something different. I would guess the source captures the imagination a lot better than this show does.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





This show has a happy ending, unless you count a somewhat sad fate for the SML (but he was pretty unhinged by the end). I don’t think it’s wrapped up that well, though. Like the immediate conflicts are resolved and it ends with reunion and kiss, but there is no view of how things would play out after that. Endings like this aren’t unusual but I still never find them satisfying; in this case, the story wasn’t epic enough for me to want a Happily Ever After and I didn’t care enough about the characters to be upset.

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Everything Wrong With This Show

Here’s the issue: this story was written and directed in completely the wrong genre. What should’ve been shot as a thriller/tragedy was actually shot like a romantic comedy.

The “Romance”: It took me until about halfway through to realise that the very creepy and huge red flag of a male lead was not going to get better. He constantly stalks, harasses, and threatens the female lead. They shoot him like a romantic lead but his actions are so off-putting it kept me constantly questioning whether I should actually want the female lead to fall for him. As it turns out the story is actually supposed to be a tragedy and you’re not really supposed to route for the male lead. So then why is the first half written and directed like a typical romantic comedy?
Another main issue is that we never get to see the female lead express romantic feelings for the male lead. Whenever issues of relationships are discussed, it’s always under duress and she always answers pretty clearly that she is not interested. And we have to hear her say this probably at least 6 to 7 times across the series. Additionally, the male lead just won’t give up. No matter how clearly she rejects him he can’t seem to accept no for an answer and punishes her for this.

Plot Holes and Contradictions: Not only do we have to listen to these constant refusals from the female lead, but at the same time she cannot seem to leave his side and remains desperate to protect him at all costs. At the beginning, the motivation for this was clear; the survival of The Crown Prince was her survival as a palace maid. But once the male lead is crowned King this motivation is gone which means we are only left with having to assume she genuinely cares about the male lead, whilst at the same time questioning why she’s constantly refusing his advances. They could at least have used the fact that she’s technically the daughter of a traitor and in the palace under a full name to create some kind of obstacle for their love, but they never do this. It’s a massively wasted opportunity and feels like a big plot hole as it does get mentioned multiple times. The series honestly felt like a writer had a couple of ideas and asked ChatGPT to blend them together to make an entire show. (and yes, I know it’s based on a book.)

Character development: The other frustrating thing is the female lead started off as a fun, smart and interesting character. But after episode seven, she basically spends the rest of the series staring silently at the male lead as he harasses her. She loses all of her charm, all of her smarts and whilst I understand that this could help represent the journey of her oppression because we never clearly understand her motivations and whether she even likes the male lead it doesn’t work. Again, this is shot and directed like a romantic comedy. If they wanted to explore the themes of a woman losing her own identity because of the oppression from a powerful man, this was not the way to do it. The male lead stayed pretty much one note throughout. If nothing else we can describe him as persistent. Although I have been harsh in the way I’ve described him so far, he did have a lot of sympathetic parts. I’m not blind to his difficult situation and traumatic past. I really think it could’ve been the perfect character in a different genre and treated with a little bit more subtlety. However, as things stand his character ended up feeling very static as he begins the series basically in love with the maid and spends the rest of the series trying to convince her to be in love with him back. This gave him very little growth. although he does ask the female lead why she doesn’t love him back once, and to be honest a large part of the blame goes on the female lead for never giving him a decent answer, that also meant that he never had the opportunity to grow in his understanding of her needs, or ever really reach a point of empathy for why she might keep refusing him. His grumpy, frowny, aggressiveness towards her started to grow pretty tiring towards the end. And it’s a shame because I really think he could’ve been such an interesting character if given the opportunity to grow past the middle of the show.

The weird bits: I honestly spent most of the series confused. And I cannot fathom why the score is so high. Also the shoehorned plot line about some secret society of maids trying to kill off the prince for one of the weakest reasons I’ve ever seen was so jarring and felt like it was absolutely in the wrong series. They had such a sense of realism throughout the first few episodes, the dedication to detail in how maids would’ve lived their lives and gone through training, and the rules and etiquette of court life, only to throw in this weird fantastical trope in what I’m only assuming is an attempt to shove some action in. It felt very low threat and it became ridiculous watching a bunch of maids running around dressed as ninjas.

Positives: There are some positives. I did enjoy the acting and veteran’s performances, especially the old King. I also really liked the attention detail in court life.

Conclusion: I really felt like this series was at least two if not three stories from different genres Frankensteined together. If they had just separated these out, I think we could have ended up with either a really fun and entertaining romantic comedy or a beautiful and tragic thriller. Unfortunately, we got neither.

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Inconsistent story, but amazing acting from the leads

When I first heard of this casting, I was against it as many others were, because of the age gap and I decided to watch this because I was bored and I was curious to see if the director was daring enough to actually add romantic scenes. So yes, I am gonna talk about the age gap and invite you to scroll away or ignore it if you're sick of people complaining about this

The story has some inconsistent aspects about it and the one I noticed the most was the female lead's character. She is introduced to us as a genius inventor but also a spoiled noble lady who grew up sheltered. She has a loving family and a lovingly clumsy father who dotes on her and a lover. This whole facade started to crumble when it was revealed during the coup d'état (rebellion) of the prince, whose name I forgot, that her "father" was the one who planned the prince Qi uprising to the throne as a regent. It led her "father" to force her to go back to the male lead's mansion and be his perfect pawn and killed her maid.

Here is the inconsistency that started to begin. For someone who is described as naive, she didn't have much of a heartbreaking reaction when she found out her "dad" wasn't the person she thought he was. She accepts it rather calmly and quickly, which didn't sit right with me because she is someone who is supposed to not know much about the political world. I thought that when her maid died, that would've lasted more of an impact on her and actually caused her to have more nightmares. Instead, she only did once and moved on after she buried her body. After those events, I thought it would've led her to gain a purpose to drag down her "father"; instead, she just went on to live a normal life in the male lead's mansion with his consort and parents for a few episodes.

The female lead can be surprisingly childish and smart at the same time. One moment she hates the male lead for being stupid, then the next she surprises us with her smart brain. This duality isn't bad until you notice how her naivety shines through and leads her to misunderstand the male lead's actions, which causes her to dislike him even more. I hate this sort of misunderstanding because they are the most frustrating type. Not to mention that whenever they speak about politics around her, she somehow understands without much of a second thought for someone who's supposed to be "naive".

I feel like they might be suffering through the same problem as Ashes to Crown because both dramas for me weren't just engaging enough. I guess it's sadly due to the series having a short episode count, which causes the pacing to rather suffer because it tries to fit the most and wrap up the storyline within the given length. Which is a shame cause the key of the Phoenix Heart emblem was really an intriguing part of the storyline. I'm still gonna turn this on when im bored tho since its only a short amount of episodes.

The acting doesn't disappoint at all. HmH really knows how to display a longing gaze for the female lead. Aimi portrays the childish side of the female lead quite well, which really makes her be able to stand on her own with actors like HMH.

The cinematography is rather disappointing. The lighting sometimes makes it look too modern, which turns me off because it's supposed to be a historical drama or maybe it's a me problem



Personally, I've seen a lot of people complain about how many netizens are voicing concerns about the age gap, but also about the lack of romance, and I think we've lost the plot here. Recently, (the time I'm writing this it's recently) at a promotional event, the director of the drama made a rather disgusting comment about Aimi that stunned both the stars (Hou Minghao) by his comment. This is the exact reason why minors shouldn't be cast in a role that is way older and with disgusting men of the entertainment industry. The reason, in the first place, why people were concerned was because of the disgusting predators that are around in this industry. For one thing, I'm glad Hou Minghao was there on set cause he seems like a sensible adult.

I've also seen disgusting comments about Aimi recently turning 18 and people saying it's okay now to cast her in older roles because she's in college, which means "legal". NO! SHE IS STILL, IN FACT, A MINOR EVEN IF SHE'S 18! I find it a shame that her company is pushing her for older roles in more popular dramas when she's such a talented girl. I don't understand the rush when she's still young and has plenty of time in her career to have a breakout role that leads her to more immense popularity than this drama.

We can tell that they are trying to make her older as well through her styling and makeup. I noticed how her makeup would be a lot when there was a close-up scene of her. This doesn't work well because Aimi naturally has more rounder and cuter features that make her look her age and younger, which makes me wonder if they casted an older actress, maybe they wouldn't have to try to make her look older.

I personally enjoy romances but that doesn't mean I won't watch something that doesn't have romance. I'm always seated for a good political intrigue of a drama that contains revenge. Which makes me wonder if they had romance in this with an older actress, would it have saved the plot for me? ( I doubt so) So I think the people who complain about the lack of romance are stupid and sometimes h*rny who want a dark romance or something like The Prisoner of Beauty. Not everything needs romance because the moment everything does, everybody would be sick of it, including them.

To end this off, F that director for making such disgusting comments towards Aimi and a reminder to not ship the real actors, please.

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what were they thinking...

what the actual fuck bro this is literally just a vertical drama converted into a professional streamed drama?? i wouldn't be surprised to hear that fuckass water droplet sound effect...

these episodes go so fast and yet so slow with absolutely no pauses that it is giving me whiplash. music just HAS to be blasting with no rhyme or reason every SECOND it 's actually pissing me off and exhausting me, we have pauses and silent scenes for a REASON!! i don't need ur AI ass stock ass music pounding my ears all the fucking time. it's making the drama feel low-budget and cheap and ik it's not because the costuming is great!>Ef,ekwnn i would enjoy this drama so much more if it weren't for the constant NOISE

all these characters do is aura farm and tensionmaxx bro like omfg and those stunt animations and shit are way too weird and smooth to be industry-CGI, it feels so AI ughhh I really want to like this drama but ahhhh i swear the creators think their audience is stupid bc i'm literally getting breast-fed information and then burped occasionally it's pissing me off

it's such a shame because i really do love the lighting, colour-grading, some of the story and a lot of the shots they use for the characters, especially with zhou yiran, because zhou yiran looks GOOOOOD in this drama like genuinely omfg i was blushing everytime he came on screen WHHAATTTTT such a waste of talented actors

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