The Long Ballad

> I was very hyped about this drama. Always checked for updates. Desperate to see what’s coming next.  

> I loved the cinematography! Loved the way the scenes were captured from every angle.

> I dig Ashile Tribe style. It just looked somewhat different and beautiful and ML always looked amazing .

> The fight scenes were something to watch. The music -- beautiful. I especially loved the comic input.

> The Long Ballad started off at a decent pace. I found it was very captivating. It was upbeat, but 30 eps in and I started to lose interest. In the beginning, without question, I knew what was driving Li Chang Ge ... but soon I was left to wonder what her purpose “really” is.  It got lost in transition and the memento the series started off with was lost somewhere around this time as well.

> The writers tried to make Li Chang Ge into some sort of Godlike saviour, but the way I see it— only the life she deeds important is important.
 
> Overall, the series isn’t bad but neither is it great. I really thought The Long Ballad would have been 2021 “2020 Love and Redemption”, in the sense that, Love and Redemption was such a great hit.

> Maybe I will pick it up again in another year or so. No promises thou. But hey! Go ahead and give it a watch. You all might like it better than I did.

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Quintessential - Deserves more seasons and Epic Movie version

I have my previous review written here, and now I must continue be proud with this series.

Acting.
Chemistry is the key for a great ensemble creating perfect harmony and romancing amazing stories. This one got it, for sure!
The actors and actresses delivers this ripen micro expressions of love, crush, bravery, intrigue, devastation, heartbreak, faith, optimism, timid, malicious, devious, heroic, wit.
Sword fight and Archery performance, flawless. Tear-jerking moments, heart-rending. Endearments moments, flutters hearts. If you’d like to be taken to an adventure, then this is your cup of tea.
It is so exciting to found another great drama works, since a few of my preferences. To mention best two titles thus far was: Secrets of Three Kingdom and The Longest Days in Chang’An. Now we have a third with The Long Ballad.

Costumes, Sets and Props.
It is about adventurous story where most of the scene leads to outdoors. And they were scarce Palaces involves or that grand majestic forbidden city sized Palace. However, the portraying is detailed and well produced. I could’ve swear Ashile Sun’s hair do is my all time favorite here. Even Chang Ge androgyny style is so attractive. Costumes and make-up were fitted perfectly aligned with each character. The Masks are also one of my favorite.

Story.
Well narrated. Eloquent rendition. And unpredictably predictable. It always leaves for more. Like this could becoming a start of invigorating series. Really deserves for more seasons and brought up to movie versions. Fingers crossed. It is a wish (with hopefully the same cast as leads).
The last 9 episodes was astonishing. It’s like maneuvering great journey to the end.
There are a few of awkward scenes, which gives a tad of cringe feelings. Like the fire CGI, would be better if was just smokes and chaos. Then again, during pandemic perhaps it was the consideration. The plague marks were weird too, simple blotch would’ve been okay.
Skinships are only a kiss away. PG-13 Literally. Don’t be let down by it. A Sun’s hugs and affectionate stares is such a great expectations. The same goes with Hao Du angst, despair and sunshine smiles.
Chang Ge is very strong and determined. Focused and sometimes sassy. Dilreba is perfect for this. Le Yan is a becoming princess. Her character is slight similar with Sansa Stark. Evolving with stronger elements. Rosy Zhao bring that charm to screen seamlessly. Ashile Sun is heaven’s matched for Leo Wu. Can’t hardly think anyone would be so perfect to play that role. He did Him justice. Constantly breathtaking. Hao Du is sunshine. Perhaps started of like a grim gray clouds. Then along the way his heart grew brilliant like precious gem stones. Yuning is an immaculate Hao Du.

Soundtracks and BGM.
Suitable and divinely orchestrated. It has all of the emotions components for each scenes. Impeccable.

My favorite top three scenes are: Third would be the kicks off in the first episode. Ball Game. How Heroes meet. Second would be A Sun banishing Chang Ge in order to protect her. First ranking would be all the moments A Sun instantly saved Chang Ge.

Like I said. This drama deserves five more seasons and an epic movie version.

*** previously reviewed
From episode 1, start this curious journey of epic excitement. I am so invested. My chest felt bursting feelings of enthusiasm. This drama is such a casting goals, and you will fell in love madly with both pairs specially. Also the rest of the cast are aces.

Ever since The Longest Day in Chang’An, I seemed to wondered earnestly with titles referring for any production sets during the Tangs’s dinasty and that historical city. Seeking out any action love stories (nothing screams cheesy) drama, well-made and spectacular. And found it here with The Long Ballad.

Chemistry has always been the key for great episodes of drama. Supported with good rendition, well-thought landscaping with wardrobe, make-up and sets, music and all of it just maneuvering with the right direction and coordination.

Most memorable moments is how the love moments being delivered. With patience, passionately.

The two main pairs are incredibly play out modest. However, brilliant with the feelings oozing out their words, stares, gazes, pain, hurt, longing, crush, and divine love. They are great becoming actors and actresses, and hopefully awaits more wonderful projects in the future for them.

Let’s talk pairs up couples. I’ll keep in one sentences.

Changge and Ashile Sun. Steamy couple in a modest way possible, tends to left your imagination gone wild but expected.

Leyan and Hao Du. Devoted Love, arresting.

Must warn for the blood and gore. But honestly, this is a historical genre. And this just one of the bits that done right and makes it gloriously great.

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At times riveting

Admittedly, I was on the fence about starting this series because the pairing of Dilraba and Leo Wu seemed odd to me, and I wasn't wild about yet another cliche princess-disguised-as-boy-grows-up story. Generally, this couple pairing works fine with overall cohesiveness in production, whole cast acting, and plot. As in, whatever reservations I have about the main pair chemistry didn't really matter to my enjoyment of the show because the rest of it more than made up for a quality viewing.

Had this show focused more on the FL/ML romance, it would have been less successful. More intimate and romantic scenes would only serve to highlight the lack of... intensity? Passion? Sparks? The romance is very one-sided, with Leo Wu's character Sun obviously in love with Dilraba's more reserved character LCG, though she is gradually falling for him too. It's hard to tell how exactly she's in love with him, like a low level attraction that hums along but never raised above tepid. The slow burn in itself isn't the problem, it's just that there isn't enough energy between them to make me feel invested in their relationship **. These scenes - Sun suddenly grabs her in a tight hug and asked her to stay alive, or Sun fighting Shen to win her (as the slave) and then grabbing "his woman" in front of the entire tribe to haul his prize away - hot hot hot. No doubt they are incredibly beautiful people, so every scene is a feast to the eyes. However, the chemistry is less between the characters but more like chemistry between Leo Wu & the viewer, Dilraba & the viewer. All the long eye looks and close encounters are supposed to elicit "feels" but sorry, I don't feel it. There are no kissing scenes for them, with their eventual coupling inferred and left to imagination. That works better than potentially lukewarm kisses. After they have this understanding about their relationship, the romance went into a deep dive from some tension to zero.

Some of the reviews noted that Sun's character didn't really develop over the series. I agree to an extent, but would argue that Sun is already developed as a person. He's already got a good sense of self and gets the big picture. He's not still trying to find himself or stubbornly following a one track mission (unless it's perpetually saving LCG). He's a steady solid rock for LCG. As an imposing, charismatic general, Leo Wu's portrayal is totally believable. Leo Wu's only other series I've watched is Love like the Galaxy, which is a great show, but I couldn't help noticing that he was also an imposing, charismatic general there, whose injury on shirtless muscled bod had to be treated by love interest, and who also rolled down the roof with love interest and catching her. I would love to see him break out of mold.

LCG's character, in the meantime, does develop. LCG is learning what vulnerability is like, figuring out the big picture, and changing her worldview as a result. I love female characters who are strong, smart and not silly/whiny but the disparity between what she is supposed to be (strategic, decisive, smart) and her actions (naive, idealistic, unguarded) makes it hard for me to buy into her character (so far). Add to that impulsiveness, tunnel vision, and terrible choices. Possibly, my bias is due to not seeing how emotions translate into Dilraba's expressions. She has very defined modes - gentle (with the women and the weak), or serious/reserved/determined (with everyone else), or sad (on deaths).

This is one area where Zhao Lusi as the character LLY, has blown it out of the water with all the nuanced, highly expressive emotions on her face and in acting. Whether it's just her alone, of her and LCG, or her and HD, she provides a good counter foil to the other person or to her surroundings. It looks very natural. She's my favorite character so far going from a place of meekness and vulnerability to strength of spirit and mind. The 2nd pairing between the Liu Yuning's character HD and Zhao Lusi's character LLY is only emerging as of mid-series. LYN hasn't gone beyond the stoic, conflicted, stony face body guard yet, so we'll see how he transforms later with increasing proximity to LLY.

[** For superlative chemistry, see Bai Lu/Luo Yunxi (LiS, TTEOTM), Bai Yu/Ni Ni (PW), for e.g. Even Leo Wu/Zhao Lu Si (LLTG) has more sparks)

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Almost what I wanted because it has revenge and exile

The drama would be excellent if during the revenge period in this drama Li Chang Ge was driven by revenge but smart in a way that she isn't just mindless reckless woman who seek revenge but that she is alone the entire time during her exile and all her emotions are pointed toward strategizing on how to accomplish her revenge and than when she finally be done with her exile time that than she reunit with the ML because I like how the drama isn't harem revenge and isn't made annoying but already there are multiple nice events like the best one for me when "poor horse lost life" when they had to jump over the roped wooden bridge and she had to fall in the river...but her exile is actually filled with some people and it doesn't feel very strong because it have easened sense of Li Chang Ge's heart so I don't feel the thrill of her exile plus they do hunt her down but not intensively...the scenes feel unlike a hunt from Ever Night 2 where they were constantly in fear abd were hunted down more eagerly than in a long ballad and 25th episode was annoying asf because Ashile Sun did not kill Ashile Sher that episode made me so angry and disappointed that the rating if I'd be able to rate this episode alone it'd be 0.0 and yes Chang Ge's exile was not pitiful enough because she had A Dou with herself in her company

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the LONG ballad fr

If you like a cdrama that is mainly focused on politics this is for you! One of the things that I noticed the most is that the FL is written like how they usually write MLs, for better or for worse which makes sense for the story they wanted to tell. She's a soldier and a war strategist more than a princess. The thing that left me disappointed tho is that it's really slow in some episodes, it tends to drag some of the sad moments a little too much expecially if it's about the secondary characters rip. like the friends of the main characters are always into some tragic stuff it gets a little boring lmao
Still, it was fun and I really liked how they showed the diversity of the people living in the same country but with different backgrounds and cultures. Hao Du my beloved.

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Watched this for Zhao Lusi and Dilraba, my first of Wu Lei (Leo) and Liu Yuning. The Long Ballad was not what I was expecting at all. I was thinking a centered romance around Li Changge and Ashile Sun and a little bit of Li Leyan and Hao Du with little to no character development. Boy was I wrong. Li Changge being powerful and able to fend for herself was commendable, the love between her and Ashile Sun was pure and the chemistry did it's thing. First: Li Leyan's character development. With Li Changge's life being turned upside down and Li Leyan being naive and immature in the beginning, I thought she would stay that way during the whole show. Despite it being centered on Changge, I don't know how they had time to ground Leyan. She reached the real world away from a glazed life in the palace, and learnt a lot about life. The development is crazy with this one, the stark contrast with the Leyan from the start to the Leyan in the end. This just shows how much a real world life can do to perhaps a spoilt child. Moving on from Li Leyan to Changge and Ashile Sun: their romance was tangible from the beginning, although Changge was focused on justice, and was initially captured by Ashile Sun to be his military strategist, they slowly shifted their relationship. The visuals served and the cast came together naturally with no strain in sight. This drama was a good watch for me, no forcing myself to finish watching just for the sake of it, despite the lengthy 49 episodes. All in all, I highly recommend, and a solid 9/10. (Ignore my rating for music, unless it's really good I just put a two for everything)

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High production historical drama but romance is sub-plot

I started watching this drama because of the high praise even though I'm not a huge fan of war dramas. From the start you can tell it's a very high production, with amazing actors, set designs and costumes. The storyline and characters felt very realistic for the time period it's set in. But be aware that romance is a sub-plot so you might be disappointed if you are mainly watching for that. The beginning of the drama is very slow and I'd say after around episode 12 is where it started to get really interesting.

CHARACTERS:
There are lots of characters that we follow throughout the story but I'd say mainly we see the story of the two girls who grew up together as best friends. The first princess is the female lead who is a tomboy, very skilled and intelligent. She is betrayed by her uncle at the start and looks for a way to take revenge for her family's death. The second female lead is her best friend (and uncle's daughter) that reluctantly becomes the new princess. She is very sweet, gentle and sensitive. Both have huge character developments and go through many intense challenges. In fact the storyline of the second female lead is one of my favourites as it's done so well. There are also three male leads that are love interests and closely connected to the war storyline.

ROMANCE:
I'm a huge fan of romance so naturally my enjoyment will highly depend on the romance aspects of the drama. Even though I loved the romantic scenes in the drama, they were not enough for me. Main couple is mostly about saving each other from life and death situations and the second couple has kind of a love triangle (but it's done really well, without jealousy or annoyance). In fact, the second couple has a more romantic feel to them but towards the end of the drama. There are no proper kiss scenes so as mentioned above, if you are mainly wanting to watch a romance story, you might be disappointed.

OVERALL:
It's a very well done historical drama, the war scenes are not too much or intense. It's about personal growth, overcoming challenges, friendships, finding love in the most unexpected ways and fighting for justice and peace. If you are not craving a lot of romance, this drama is perfect for you.

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A Ballad Like no Other

I watched this drama 2 years ago and was a tad bit disappointed because I keep comparing it to the manhua and of course the manhua was much better. Due to the tweaks and changes that the show writers did, I was very prejudice against the show when watching it then. Now with a new perspective and after rewatching the drama without judgement, I found that the drama was very enjoyable. The story follow our main lead Li Changge (Dilraba), a head strong princess who's on a quest of revenge. Along the way she met Ashile Sun ( Leo Wu) and many others who showed her friendship, loyalty, and love.
The drama gave us a solid introduction, great characters, and story building. I appreciate that the show writers made our female characters strong in their own way. Changge is not your typical princess. She's strong willed, smart, and loyal. Opposite her is our typical princess, Leyan (Zhao Lusi). She's cute, soft spoken, and caring. At first I thought she would be a useless princess, but as the story progressed, she became one of my favorite "weak princess" character. And who have thought that our main villain was also a woman, Princess Yicheung. She's a mix of cunningness, switching between a weak forgotten princess and a tactful Khatun. Our male characters were also a delight to watch. The romance is there, but you won't be seeing any fan service of kisses from our leads. I particularly liked watching the interactions between our second couple in the drama, Liyuan and Hao Du (Liu Yuning).
My only complaint about this drama was the cartoon portion of it. It should have been left out or portrayed live. I was glad they didn't use it too much throughout the drama.
Overall, this drama is a great watch. Would I watch it again? Of course! (I already did and would not miss it for a third time.)

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Incessant war holds little to no benefits for the common man

Li Changge, a princess well-versed in martial arts, escapes out of the palace with a vow to return for revenge. She encounters a hundred different difficulties that test her abilities, her relationships, her trust and most of all, her purpose.

Star-crossed lovers, intelligent, power couple at that with a proper thread of good, interesting plots that wrapped well on the whole and plenty of visually appealing landscapes, awesome cast and acting, and many side couples as a cherry on top - this is a brilliant production. Almost miraculous that something like this was delivered. I didn't find it perfect however. They gave everything they could possibly though - so I guess I'm being a little greedy lmaoo.

Leads - I really appreciate them as characters. I can't say all their actions were without fault, but definitely all their motives, reasoning, and purpose were commendable which made it worth watching. Their romance was okish, not bad but um.. like I said greedy me. But their action was so so good. Both actors have really delivered their very dynamic roles so nicely from start to finish.

After everything, what captured the romance department was a princess and bodyguard couple haha. To be fair, Hao Du & Leyan were excellent so they deserve the credit.

Plot - Each arc was different - in the sense some were better than others. My favourite would be the events in Louyang (I liked it a lot :)), followed by Shuzhou maybe.

MINOR SPOILERS:

While main thread held, there just seemed to be some things that I couldn't not be a little disappointed by or things that were unconvincing. In some instances, FL's abilities working so well, allowing her to move around anywhere & everywhere, escape anything, pretty much a Houdini, only she didn't even have to implement any great tricks to do it every time. Especially when she was a prisoner in Ashile. I wasn't convinced by the ML much in that one either. Not to mention, their romance which was unclear in some places and the way it sometimes influenced the leads but sometimes didn't. Yicheng giving Mimi chances over and over again after getting betrayed every time, seemed to be a classic villain weakness given to smooth things over for later. Like I'm glad about in the good vs evil perspective, but in a critical writing and story wise, not so convincing. And I guess, small things like that here and there.

Overall - 8.5/10

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Too long, but still good overall

Damn. I finished this. The middle and the last couple episodes were… long, and I admit that I skipped a ton to get ahead. I think 35 episodes would have sufficed to tell the story; I don’t know why it was nearly 50😭.

HaoYan is indeed an incredible couple. Hao Du is like a pillar, a rock, that’s always been there to protect her. I think it’s because he was also so consistently there that she kind of didn’t think more of it. The competition changed everything though 😏. Even when their feelings weren’t as strong, his highest priority was ensuring her safety, something Wei Shu Yu simply didn’t do. He was so useless in general: losing Le Yan, losing the Crown Prince, losing Chang Ge, not speaking up when he should (Le Yan confessing her love and letting her think he accepts her feelings only to sister-zone her???) etc. Hao Du had to clean up WSY mess, AND he would die for Le Yan, and gladly so (as we see when he joins the competition for her marriage, he does so because he didn’t want her to marry someone she didn’t love – even if it meant she would reject him). Both Le Yan and Hao Du grew over the course of the show, they matured and learned to communicate their feelings and how to trust one another.

I also enjoyed Chang Ge’s and Ashile Sun’s relationship. They were each other’s safe place, and a very smart, calculated couple. It was nice to see them have some sweet moments towards the end of the show.

What I didn’t like:

- The camera work and editing felt very sloppy and unflattering sometimes. Very disappointed in that department. How do you make Dilireba, Wu Lei, Liu Yu Ning or Zhao Lu Si look kinda bad? And why would you waste pretty scenes with a weird light??? Shining brighter than the sun damn.

- The show was too long, and I really didn’t care about the Ashile tribe. I liked A’Sun, but the whole tribe and its inner politics?😬 After a while, I got tired of it, and I also felt like those parts of the middle dragged the most.

Overall, a really nice show that shines due to its stellar acting, great costumes and sets, and amazing music that underlines every situation perfectly. It should have been a little shorter though, and the camera work/editing could have been better….!

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To see and review without moderation!

A truly excellent historical drama, breathtaking, in which we stay hooked without getting bored for a second.

The story is well put together, embodied by great actors (Leo Wu ❤❤❤ et Dilraba Dilmurat). There are multiple twists and turns, but they are well put together and believable. The relationship that is built between the 2 heroes is strong and moving, we are wholeheartedly with them.

The secondary characters are not forgotten (again, the actors are great) and the secondary romances are too cute. Even Mimi's death is sad but consistent in context.

I love the concept of drawn passages (Manga side).

In short, to see and review without moderation!

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