Reviews

Iconic song by SML

Iconic song by SML

re: "Also, not to look into anyone's linen basked and go into *that* much detail, but no uncertainty about the kid's paternity? She was back for a month if I recall correctly when she slept with HG the first time. Not sure when she broke things off with DK exactly, I guessed close to the time she went back to SK. "

Maybe they used protection, after all she even planned to abort the baby thinking about the potential impact with her career, which makes it apparent that her and HS didn't use any contraceptive method (or I guess it failed, but I would go with the former)... This makes me wonder about what ifs, if she didn't come back because she was thinking about the next step, or if it was something like cheating following by her feeling insecure about DK, but it's also true that they didn't mention cheating explicitly, though she mentioned some sort of model when he asked about "the musician". Would have loved to know more about their breakup... did they ever consider a family? Iirc YJ answered she didn't plan to marry to the press (which HS read and reported when talking with their friends, and which to be honest kind of reflected her hesitancy at the end of the drama).

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Not enough meat on the bone

This was an enjoyable watch for a while. It had a warmth and heart to it I responded positively to and I was curious to see how the story and the characters were going to develop. However, I eventually became bored with it. The story is thin and cliched and the characters are two dimensional at best. The actors playing the boys in the band had an appealing natural chemistry with each other but that wasn't enough to compensate for how uninteresting they ultimately turned out to be as individuals and how rote their personal journeys were. This probably would have been a perfectly pleasant movie or miniseries but it was too shallow to sustain itself as a 16 episode drama.

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this drama is definitely a must watch for anyone

hello, everyone, this is my honest review about this drama story of yanxi palace coming from a person who has watched 100+ cdramas and 100+ kdrama no kidding I stopped watching cdramas as frequently as I used to in 2021 and became a die heart kdrama fan only becoz cdramas are way to cliche and drag nowadays and I already watched the best of the best in cdrama but I still try to come back and try one out and this is the drama I saw in 2023 that brought the teenager who loved cdramas in me back hehe

just finished this drama btw so a bit biased rn so bear with me


I personally really appreciate this drama first of all I have to say they did the best job at casting and OST it's so perfect, I can't even imagine other actors in the main role. Also, there is something about the ost from the intro its exciting and builds up nostalgia in a way, overall the actors are super iconic but the king sometimes(rarely)does cringe in my opinion. the story itself is made up so beautifully with the history itself as a base It is interesting. the strong female lead gives relief from the desperate, always in misery female lead in most period dramas, it's quite refreshing and satisfying to see a strong-willed character always getting her revenge and making the villains come down call me petty lol but I'm so sick of seeing fml always so miserable and just idk helpless and they do unbelievable bs stuff out of nowhere if u look at most period dramas this is common also the beauty of this drama is just pure eye candy you can just melt away looking at the attire, As someone who has seen my share of traditional clothing in dramas this one did stood out a lot in the traditional cdrama world. this drama gives you the enemies-to-lovers romance effect and also a big 2nd lead syndrome don't want to spoil but it gets interesting and as the story goes on you develop a lot of character attachments get ready to ball your eyes out! the only annoying part I feel is the feeling of a jump cut or that some more story is missing from the drama, I felt like I missed something for sure, As in they should've added a bit more info on some characters to build more character info for the viewers.

As this drama is based on history we can assume they did not want to over-fictionalize the actual history, you need to be a bit mature to understand this drama. overall this drama is better than most of the weird overly dramatic and dragged period dramas today and one of the few traditional clothing non-fantasy drama that any type of viewers can enjoy (coming from someone who hates political dramas)

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Hmmm.....nevermind, just read the following!

I want to start off with positive points, yeah it does have few positive things that I wanna mention, lol.
1) first season couple's cameo, loved that scene.
2) I really liked how FL's mom was super rich, strong, pretty and smart all in one..cuz in most of the dramas it's other way round. She was the highlight of this show and all her scenes were super entertaining, I never skipped her scenes. Her acting was pretty good.
3) ML - he is cute, considerate, kind and everything. Acting was good.
4) actors acting was good, those 3 stars are for their acting.

Now negative points. There are many but I will mention only few that made be give only 3 stars.
1) FL- I guess her character was supposed to be cute and innocent cuz of the way she was brought up in mangolia but I found her very annoying. It wasn't cute in anyway her constant smiling for no reason and making faces trying to be cute was very irritating. (Am talking about character not actress)

2) villain is handsome and looked dangerous in the beginning but he was actually very stupid, mentally and emotionally weak not to mention how it ended with him committing suicide. I feel pity for him but for God sake hez a villain and took many innocent lives, distributed drugs etc. here I don't really understand what writer was trying to do cuz his pitiful story and everything made many people actually hate FL for betraying him, leaving them in confusion on whether he really deserved to die or not, and suicide? Really? Left everyone with bitter taste by the end, maybe that's what writers were trying to do but it made villain's character steal the focus from main leads and I didn't really bother about leads cuz villain's character had more depth than leads only cuz of his past lol cuz he isn't that smart there are many points where you feel hez soo dumb, he was played with for more than half of the story. anyways it's really silly how writers tried to make us LOVE AND HATE him at the same time but what really happened was that it made us get annoyed with FL even more for God sake show's title is on FL but her character itself is very annoying. and she did betray him no matter what the 'reason' was everything eventually led him to commit suicide. At least they should have shown him getting arrested or something. There's no going back as his life is anyways ruined cuz of all the wrong decisions he made but committing suicide brought even more sympathy to his character. Like why?

3) story - Gosh!! Didn't like the whole drug shit at all. There was no solid story. Even though its on a sensitive topic (drugs) but story wasn't good at all. I didn't enjoy it.

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Nice watch

Overall, I liked the drama very much.

In terms of the 2nd lead couple, I thought that they should have paint more attention to the revelation that YJ was seeing DK behind HS's back for more than a year prior to running away with him, because that's pretty much a game changer. I would have had no problem with her deciding that she didn't love HS anymore and wanted to pursue something with DK, but then the least he deserved as a human being, and even more as someone that by her own admission had stayed by her side for almost a decade without even so much as getting coffee with another girl, was to be treated with a minimum of respect and honesty.

Frankly, I have seen some rather delusional takes, such as one person painting the picture of a promiscuous artistic environment, and a famous public facing artist, as opposed to her "hermit" reclusive boyfriend, attracting attention and wanting to "upgrade" the boyfriend with respect to the "old" throwaway model she had been with for so long, thus going for the rich fop instead. Now, there are plenty of tv shows where young people that have always been together decide to break up, though this "upscaling" seems utterly superficial (and she was around 27/28, not that being young means being superficial, in terms of inexperience/immaturity... in any case, they don't have anything to do with loyalty and honesty, the golden rule of treating others like you want to be treated, which is pretty universal and requires no particular wishdom of the years). But the show, while not giving precise details on what happened, clearly:
1. Does not make the artist environment out to be particularly filled with flaky, superficial, disloyal or even promiscuous people (plus this is SK there is high expectation fo public figures)
2. Does not at any point imply that she was relying on a man or going for someone more rich and successful, and the very notion is very disrespectful.
3. Makes it plain that HS also had girls going after him, he simply didn't want to partake. He was no hermit (if anything, one could say he saw more people on a daily basis that your solo painter) and *worked* in the city, the house is merely a villa on the hill, which many rich and successfull people have without being socially isolated -he has a car-.
4. Makes it plain that when she met DK she was no famous star, having just had her first lackluster exhibition.
5. She clearly states that she was in love with DK at the time, this was not her going for someone else because she was wondering what else was out there.
6. In any case, I don't think one can make generalizations about artists in the first place, particularly in a different culture like SK with certain expectations for behaviour, and we are not exactly talking about the typical male rockstar sleeping with their groupies, at least that's not how that environment was depicted in the show. It was classy and aloof. By the same token she didn't go partying hard or do drugs. And even if she was in a community where disloyalty and dishonesty were prevalent, it would say something about their behaviour, not on the morality of hurting, humiliating, deceiving one's partner, a behavior that is universally considered objectionable to say the least (again, this is separate from things like poly, etc., it's about honesty, not where to set the boundaries and whether sex or even romance with multiple people is in or out, the specific rules have to be negotiated with one's partner anyway). To be clear, if you are in an environment where theft and street violence are more common, it does not make engaging in such behavior moral.

Another insane take was the idea that having a more than year long affair and running off with her lover somehow being described behaving more like men to make her way in a (man's) world, I find the take to be an utterly insane generalization: while men are less faithful in general, not being faithful is not a defining characteristic of men, and in particular prior to her betrayal it was most definitely not a characteristic of HS, and certainly didn't help her nor anyone else make their way in the world (unless one is insinuating something like that DK only sponsored her because she slept with him, which seems insulting and the exact opposite of female empowerment). Much more respectful to say that she made her way in the world through her own talent. The only way she overturned gender roles there was proposing, which was cool, for the rest, her femininity has no impact on choosing her sexual partner (FL did it while passing as a male) or her career (surely it's insulting, not empowering, to think that she didn't get where she was through talent, or imply that DK only helped her because they were together).

Now, to tackle HS's behaviour, looking at what actually happened, they are the same thing in the same way that a paper boat and Bezos' yacht are both boats (I guess that technically they both float, but comparing them is like comparing a candle light to the Sun). HS had a small unreciprocated kiss with a girl that was not interested in him anymore. Frankly, in her place, I would be too ashamed by the sheer hypocrisy of the word about to escape my mouth to even mention words like not being able to trust, feeling pathetic, or pride, let alone mention reading a message when he was alone compared to more of a year of lying to his face in the same phrase.

Frankly, there is a long, long way to go before they can be considered to be "even". Even if he had cheated on her with another woman he fell in love with for more than a year, and then run off with her for another two without a second word, only to reappear all of a sudden two years later, expecting to find her there and ready to take him back, he still wouldn't have gotten even, because she would have done all of the above to someone that had always loved only her, after almost a decade together, and that had never even drunk a coffe with another girl, rejecting any other possible partner, on top of putting up with more than a year of her lying to his face and meeting DK in secret, and then running off for two despite his begging, only to return and dare to demand he takes her back now that she and DK have broken up... followed by a complete lack of care for his point of view or any desire or attempt to rebuild trust (if it was even possible), while he would have done all that to the very same woman that did the aforementioned cheating and running off and coming back after two years without hearing a word having the gall to ask him to take him back, without doing anything to regain his trust. Not that if she had tried for real to get his trust back it would have made any difference to what she had done to him and her complete lack of a leg to stand on and complain, in any case, just pointing out the kind of person that he would have been cheating on. In terms of karma and poetic justice, him or DK doing such a thing to her would have been something that she wouldn't have had any leg to stand on and complain about.

When she tried to threaten to leave with DK, the man she had cheated with for more than a year and run away with for two, until she showed up uninvited again, telling him that he still loved her, it should have made him more convinced to just break things off with her himself and go look for someone else. She has the gall to threaten to leave him for the guy that she had cheated with, and he is supposed to beg her to stay (which he unfortunately does)? Telling her to not let the door hit her on the a*s on the way out should have been the more appropriate response. The question is really not how he could have fallen for someone else after the hell she put him through (i.e. all it took before they could finally be together, specifically him with her... here she is probably forgetting that she was the one that went back to him after breaking up with DK, but certainly HS groveling and begging her to stay made it easy to forget that, and in any case it was basically a matter of showing up and asking, she didn't even attempt to do anything to regain his trust -doubtful whether it would have been possible in reality, but here it was all swept under the rug-), but rather how could he not have fallen for literally anyone else, or even chosen to stay single. And the hell was not finished even after getting back together, what with him being taken for granted, or the fact that the psychological and emotional trauma and suffering he went through and his understandable insecurities are ignored when not mocked, and he doesn't feel free to talk for example about how he feels regarding DK, and is mocked when he does, which he then goes along with and plays it cool, while being unable to open up and having his insecurities taken seriously, if they are not outright ignored or farcically twisted around like the pain he conveyed at being lied to for more than a year before she run off with her lover, which was completely ignored by YJ prompting the absurd question of how he could love someone else mentioned above (answer: how could he *not* love someone, anyone else, after being put through that and having her react in such a manner to his confession of utter pain? Only by not loving himself or having any self respect and self dignity left).

Talk about two weights and two measures, boundaries extremely loose for her, stricter standards for him, he has to guarantee that he will not feel anything for anyone else ever. Not talking about actions, but about straight up thought crime, like Orwell's 1984... Newflash, nobody can guarantee that, as we are in control of our actions, not of our feelings. We have thoughts and emotions, and then we have actions. The latter we control, and through reason we can orient our thoughts and judgment and evaluate our course of action: for example, if we are in an abusive relationship, we can choose to leave despite feeling attachment due to feeling from a happier past, and even come to the realization taht the person we might think we love and were convinced would have never hurt us in such a manner might exist only inside our head, and the real one does not deserve us. But you cannot choose to love someone on command. Emotions (which you feel, but are not tools of cognition), and spurious thoughts which come into your head whether you want them or not (and you can observe when you meditate, and let go), vs reasoning, vs actions. The reason the law punishes actions and not emotions and thoughts is that actions have the peculiarity, over those other two, that you can control them. You cannot choose to believe something you don't really believe simply because you want to (well, maybe there is brainwashing), and you cannot force yourself to love someone you don't. We can and should decide whether the love or attraction we feel for someone means we should pursue a relationship or not -maybe they are abusive, or they are in a relationship-. But we cannot force ourselves to, say, love someone on command, the only guarantee is to be honest and upfront with your partner and identify what the boundaries are and whether you want to carry on the relationship or pursue something with someone else.

In that respect I was repulsed and didn't agree with in the least with her minimization of ML's feelings for her when she said that he didn't love her because otherwise he would have tried to steal her from his cousin: there are other boundaries, and decent people don't try to get between two people in a relatioship, and hurt people that never did anything wrong to them -because they don't know them-, or that they care about -in this case, family-. This mentality is frankly completely self centered and self serving, and toxic, and reveals some rather ugly truths of her psychology regarding boundaries not to cross, etc. Note that when HS kissed her, FL was not with HS's cousin at the time -she was just getting infatuated, but obviously he wasn't even sure if she was really into his cousin, in fact until very recently she was into him instead, he missed by a very tight margin-. Plus, his cousin still thought the girl was a man. Otherwise I doubt HS would have considered coming between them, despite the fact that the latter routinely tried to get into his own gf's pants, so it's not as if he would have had any leg to stand on anyway. There is a point there about not trying seriously or for real, in any case walk by the river... had she reciprocated, not sure what would have happened, giving the benefit of the doubt that he would have pulled back, despite being rather inconsiderate in constantly flirting with her... I don't want to think that he shares YJ'S mentality, and wished he would have pushed back and called her out on that at any cost, including lying and deceiving other people who did not deserve it... wondering if she would be singing the same tune if she was on the receiving end for real, by someone that was determined to come between her and her boyfriend, rather than by someone that wasn't interested like FL, which was therefore not a threat-. There is also the concept of competing for the attention of the same person, versus coming between two people in an established relationship and trying to break it apart, which is what ML would have needed to have done in order to try to get YJ to leave HS.

Some quick final thoughts. Coming back to the topic of cheating, I wonder if her lover cheated with some kind of model or not (he does not mention it, she bring out a model when he asks about the musician, her bf... maybe it was just someone DK saw as a rebound after the breakup, while still pining for YJ?). Also, not to look into anyone's linen basked and go into *that* much detail, but no uncertainty about the kid's paternity? She was back for a month if I recall correctly when she slept with HG the first time. Not sure when she broke things off with DK exactly, I guessed close to the time she went back to SK.

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A nice romantic series, sometimes funny, with well-executed suspense.

The plot is totally wacky, but very funny. It makes the series catchy in the 1st part, with more length in the 2nd part, which is also more dramatic, relating to resentment linked to their past lives.

PLOT: The story essentially concerns teachers in a high school. The FL (by mistake) kisses the ML, which triggers the bad luck that has affected members of her family for generations: she turns into a dog from midnight to 6 a.m. She can only undo this spell if the ML (who has a panic fear of dogs) kisses her again in her dog form.

What I liked about it:
+ Cha Eun Woo, handsome as usual, but playing better and better. He brings the ML to life with very convincing nuances of emotion.
+ I wasn't too convinced by the FL, but I gradually let myself be taken in by her "puppy" charm. Cocoa is very cute, but we still feel the CGI at times ;)
+ Some very nice scenes for the CL, touching, and overall, great chemistry and lots of kisses.
+ The story is written intelligently, it's coherent and quite realistic for such a wacky plot.
+ The production is almost perfect. The suspense is maintained until the end. The clues are given at the right time for the viewer to put the puzzle together in their head.
+ The OSTs are excellent and fit perfectly with the emotions of the scenes.

What I liked least:
- the part concerning past lives was too long, and above all, gave rise to too many flashbacks.
- The Finale is a Happy Ending, satisfactory for the CL, but the development of some characters (the uncle) is a little sloppy.

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Plot totalement farfelu, mais série très drôle & accrocheuse dans la 1e partie, davantage de longueurs dans la 2e partie, plus dramatique, ayant trait à la rancœur liée aux vies antérieures.

PLOT: L'histoire concerne essentiellement des profs dans un lycée. La FL embrasse (par erreur) le ML, ce qui déclenche chez elle le mauvais sort touchant les membres de sa famille depuis des générations : elle se transforme en chien de minuit à 6 h du matin. Elle ne peut annuler ce sort que si le ML (qui a une peur panique des chiens) l'embrasse à nouveau sous sa forme de chien.

What I liked about it:
+ Cha Eun Woo, toujours aussi beau, mais qui joue de mieux en mieux. Il donne vie au ML avec des nuances d'émotions très convaincantes.
+ Je n'étais pas trop convaincue par la FL, mais je me suis laissée peu à peu prendre par son charme "canin". Cocoa est très cute, mais on sent tout de même les CGI par moments ;)
+ Quelques très jolies scènes pour le CL, touchantes, et globalement, une belle alchimie et beaucoup de kisses.
+ La story est écrite avec intelligence, c'est cohérent et assez réaliste pour un plot aussi farfelu.
+ La réalisation est quasi parfaite. Le suspense est maintenu jusqu'au bout. Les indices sont donnés au bon moment pour que le spectateur assemble le puzzle dans sa tête.
+ Les OST sont excellentes et collent parfaitement aux émotions des scènes.

Ce que j'ai moins aimé:
- la partie concernant les vies antérieures était trop longue, et surtout, a donné lieu à trop de flashbacks.
- Le "Final" est une Happy End, satisfaisante pour le CL, mais l'évolution de certains personnages (l'oncle) est un peu bâclée.

=> Une série sympa, parfois drôle, avec un suspense bien mené.

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YEEEES A HEARTWARMING KDRAMA

i just watched it... and it was so good tbh????? for those who said that this kdrama is cringe and super cliche, go get a life BITCH because this kdrama is so heartwarming and refreshing. the conflict isn't that serious and turns out they got their happy ending!!! I cried because of several episodes but it ended happily.... i love how hong and yoon is destined to be tgt... i was just amazed when hong actually the one that took yoon's family picture on the beach :( AND ALSO WHEN THEY MET AT THE CONVENIENCE STORE T_____T literally amazed.... i'm so happy for them!!! T_____5

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Not the drama I was anticipating for. I've seen better fantasy dramas, I would just like to state that the entire show is a little confusing when Feng Yin comes back. We all know that A Yin is Feng Yin, and when Feng Yin comes back, she wants nothing to do with Yuan Qi, but she makes it very obvious that she is A Yin.

Hua Shu isn't any better, the one time she decides to wear red also happens the one time that she's at the Phoenix realm where everyone else wears red. Like I understand that was meant to be the reason for the plot but it's also just ironic.

The story is not as good as it looks, and near the end, I just wanted to finish the drama as fast as I could. Even Ao Ge and Xiu Yan's story was confusing.

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flat-lined performances & writing ruin a potentially good story

Another medical/research drama, with the leads meeting in a fictional French speaking, developing country run by warlords. Su Wei'An is a young woman from China, ekking out a living by buying & selling goods, with the country's military leader as one of her primary customers. When she runs into a visiting Chinese neurosurgeon, Gu YunZheng, at the largest local hospital, their shared past, & her dark secret, is revealed. On return to China, the setting changes from humanitarian work to the cut-throat world of medical research & a race for the cure of a rare disease.

There's a lot of French dialogue in the beginning & the dubbing is absolutely terrible. I can't tell if the actors are mouthing the actual French words or not as many scenes are so obviously out of sync. And as with so many C-dramas involving medical people & hospitals, I learn to ignore bascially all of the details. Just pretend that the single looped surgery scene represents all of the surgeries performed.

Given Luo YunXi's impressive string of hit shows, both modern & costume, this drama is far below the standard he's set for himself (and did he actually lose weight during the filming? he's skeletal thin). Zhang RuoNan is no newcomer but this is my first time seeing her & her performance can't match the strength of Su Wei'An. ZRN's portrayal of a young person facing a life threatening illness is stiff & expressionless, not at all reflective of a character who is passionate about protecting others while personally in despair.

The romance arcs are formulaic, trope heavy, & the story takes a long time to get off the ground. It does pick up by the halfway mark when the leads return to China, but quickly descends into a toxic hell-bucket of backstabbing, cheating, & relentless bullying. Are seasoned medical researchers all stuck at the maturity level of middle schoolers? Maybe some are but who wants to watch that? ZRN's wooden expressions get very annoying & the chemistry of the leads is weak. The 2nd couple's arc is actually more lively but unfortunately gets neglected as the show progresses. I watched to the end only because I was actually curious about the outcome of the character's race to cure her own fatal disease. Thus the story itself was interesting & could have been a deeper exploration of what it means to live in the face of death. But it never got beyond the playground politics to properly prepare for the conclusion. The acting, production, & writing couldn't raise this story to the level it deserved.

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Highly rated short drama

The only questionable thing here is the title "Hidden Marriage", they did not have a hidden marriage. in fact they didn't even get married.

No hehe no haha straight to the plot and yet so enjoyable. it was almost like a "the more you bite the more sweet it is". not fast pace but not so slow. I wish it was came out as a whole show with about 45 mins per episode like other drama of Zhao Yi Qin. he is very professional and been in this industry for years yet has to act in a 5 min per episode drama, very undermining of his skills. as for the actress she had acted in a pervious drama that I watched, beautiful, graceful and talented. these are the three words enough to familiarise yourself with her.

For those who have hectic schedules or students who are busy (like me) and you just don't have time to send hours everyday to enjoy yourself on dramas. this is perfect. storyline is well thought out. one thing that got me a bit on the head scratching side was that, fl's dad is her biological dad but disowned her just like that????? as a parent you might not speak to them if they done a bad thing, but you won't be as cruel as to talk in a degrading manner to them.

This isn't just an average short drama with low budget, yes it seemed like it. however the storyline saved. in my opinion, not trying to spoil, the scriptwriter or director missed a key point when she had an accident and was in the hospital otherwise fantastic.

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Please, for the love of all that is holy, pick a genre and stick with it!

I'll start with what I liked:
-the kisses. Let's call them for what they were, "fire"! After watching multiple shows with open-eyed, slack arms, dead fish kisses, these were exactly on point. These are the scenes that I rewatched, and the only reason I actually gave this a rating of 5.
-the acting was good, for what it was. I loved Park Gu Young in Dali and the Cocky Prince, and I liked her in this as well, though I didn't really love her character that much. When she kept trying to get him drunk (I'm so tired of drunk scenes), I found her to be irritating. Cha Eun Woo was basically like he's been in everything I've seen him in. Quiet whispery voice, serious. You could play this show and True Beauty side by side and get what I mean. Everyone else did an okay job.
-family and friendships
-happy ending

Then the stuff that I didn't like.
-Thankfully, I waited for all the episodes to be released before I tried watching this. If I hadn't, I would have given up early on. I think the programmers did a disservice to this show by making it so long to be finished, between an episode once a week, to pre-empted episodes. That being said, this show was entirely TOOOOO long and very repetitive. My Viki showed it as having episodes 0-15. Episode 0 and episode 15 were the same, basically a recap of what the show was about. After watching episode 0, I kept having feelings of Deja vu while watching episodes 1-4. Then there was the recap at the beginning of every episode, and the mini recaps throughout to remind us of what has been going on.
-This show shifted and lost its footing halfway through. Started out as a comedy, with the potential to be cute and quirky. Then it shifted to bullying and its effects, then it went to revenge melodrama with the mountain god. It should have been either a comedy or a melodrama but should not have tried to mix the two. I don't think it was successful.
-The whole mountain god storyline was completely unnecessary. It seemed so over the top melo after watching funny scenes. This storyline took up a lot of screen time, and I didn't enjoy it, especially since he had cursed this family and done terrible things and there were no consequences for him. That REALLY irritated me!
-This scene really stuck out to me, and I had a hard time getting past it - whenever the woman turns into a dog, her clothes drop and she has to have friends get her clothes to her because she's naked when she turns human again. In the scene where he kisses her and lifts the curse, she turns human and is completely dressed. Why?! This would have been a great opportunity to throw in some comedy by having her be naked as usual.

Normally, if I like a show less than others, I'm usually in the minority and say give it a try, you might like it. I have reservations here, unless you make the FF button your friend. I can't remember the last time I watched a show that was so repetitive.

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Good

The writing on this show was actually top notch. The characters are complex and compelling. It was just so fascinating to watch
these characters banter and slowly open up to eachother. Of course, it's enemies to lovers, which I love. But it's portrayed in such a unique but realistic way that I haven't witnessed before in kdrama history. All of the characters have their flaws but that's what makes them all the more interesting. I also love how it feels like a fairytale and the use of stop motion. The acting is great across the board. Go Mun Young was iconic and her outfits ate down. It does follow the standard 16 episode format (which as you know I'm not a fan of) so it drags a bit. But it makes up for that in other aspects!

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Another weaker season, possibly the nail in the coffin for this series.

I'm having trouble judging this fairly, because the (AI translated?) subtitles on WeTV were so incredibly bad and incomprehensible.
I barely got why the protagonists went to the coral spiral and it feels appropriate - because it didn't matter in the slightest.
SPOILER - they just find the bone mirror randomly in a place. And after a brief fight with an octopus that's it, they have it and it never comes up again. Why was it important? I don't think it was.
This season was just annoying to me - none of the actors felt like they wanted to be there, they all looked tired of this series.
What do I even write here? Is it objectively horrible? No. Overall it's a bit of a step up from Kunlun - the CG of the ship looks mostly solid (even though it's very obvious) and I get why they did it - filming on the ocean is probably an insurance nightmare.
That said, the pacing didn't feel great. We spend a lot of time on the ship and when we do get into the tomb raiding, it's not actually tomb raiding. This one was more of an adventure movie, but it lacked tension and drive, or a sense of adventure. It just felt like actors running in front of a green screen and on sets.
One of the major problems of many tomb raiding series is the lack of antagonists and obstacles - if you don't have bad guys and tomb traps, what do you place in our heroes' way? Usually it's animals or natural hazards.
And like in Kunlun, the protagonists have to battle "animals" in this one. It's as ridiculous as ever - the mermaids are competently made in CG, but the fights lack any stakes or a real sense of danger. They just attack, because...And the heroes absolutely murder hundreds of mermaids.
Most of the side characters are weak, and the minority ones feel offensive - their dubbing sounds like mentally challenged children. And of course the minority characters die, because of course they do. Even the show acknowledges they always die in this series.
There is some overarching conflict between Shirley and Hu Bayi this season, revolving around his adventuring spirit and how that puts him in danger. But it doesn't really resolve in a satisfying way, she just accepts it after he almost dies yet again.
The show keeps flashing back to Lost Caverns or Worm Valley and I kept thinking how much better the show was then. Stop reminding me!
What happened?!
Was it covid complications? Did the actors just get tired, do they dislike the story?
They do a setup for another season and another adventure to save Duoling's life, but I seriously doubt there will be a sequel.
And if so, I don't think these actors are coming back.
It's just all such a shame.

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Give it a Go, good story. Good acting. AN ACTUALLY BRIGHT FL

So not ever having watched bai jing ting or song yi before I started watching it just for the sake of watching it. But it was much better than expected. It's GOOD. Its WONDERFUL. The fl is much better than cliche period drama fls who end up harming the ml a lot. ( I mean they hurt him emotionally and sometimes act foolish and put him in danger ). The couple chemistry is very good. They started off in a classical cdrama fashion but nahh their relationship isn't anything I expected it to be. There are no misunderstandings. No toxicity. The fl is wise and benevolent. My women started businesses from scratch 3 times! She protects and supports the ml - politically, financially. Here, men are not the only breadwinners and protectors. It's an equal relationship in true sense.

The supporting characters like zhou ye, shen ming and Ye shi'an are all good actors and support the main couple very much in their pursuits. The commissioner Fan Xuan was a benevolent leader. (I am so happy he didn't disappoint me).

Well what started off from the snow of Jiangnan, through the dry winds of north it ended up in Dongdu. The fl who started as a timid, oppressed-in-her-own-family girl grew up to be a business tycoon having wealth which rivaled the kingdom. And the ml who was a playboy not listening to his parents in the starting eventually became a minister in the court and not any minister the left councillor (basically the one on highest post). What started off as a misunderstanding, eventually became a beautiful relationship standing strong in times of war, separation and tragedies. They parted with their loved ones, their wealth. Gu jiusi, Indeed used his body to protect yuru's body from wind and rain and her clothes from dust and indeed yuru accompanied him in his travels of a thousand miles.

Generous, wealthy and considerate. They built relationships with people wherever they went. They both helped each other navigate through all hard times. Indeed, it was a God sent marriage.

On a side note - the ost is good and I really like the song 'it's you'

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