So worth the 45 episodes and I Didn't Fast Forward Once!
I wasn't expecting much when I started watching this, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I truly enjoyed it.Why it hits: Arranged marriage → mutual respect → full devotion
The ML went above and beyond when it came to the FL and it truly added to their chemistry together. However, despite him being a complete green flag to the FL, he did come up short when it came to his concubines. This led to so many drama plot lines, your head will spin. LOL!
Intimacy: Strong romantic build-up with tasteful bedroom scenes
The intimate level between these two was subtle, but sweet. I wouldn't call it a passionate romance at all, but more of a matured romance of two hearts that came to understand each other.
Ending: Sweet, emotional, fulfilling
Some viewers felt the ending was a bit thrown together, but I didn't mind it that much. Everyone was happy and that's all I was looking for at the end.
It's a long watch, however, I would definitely recommend investing the time!
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a show that makes you want to keep watching
honestly, the ending of every episode is so exciting that it makes me want to continue watching the next ep, and always make me curious about what happens nextthe plot is exciting despite it being 45 episodes, and it doesn’t really feel like a drag?
though i’m disappointed at the ending, i was soooooooo excited to see what happened to my 冬青 & 傅大人 but they just brushed it over through using words like “so this is what happened to them”
&& their love are so cute, the way they bicker with each other & realising that they’ve fallen
though i have to say that i admire the love of the main couple, where they trust & love each other so much, it helped them overcome all the difficulties
though it’s also their love for each other that led to many issues but still cute
anyway, give it a try if you can!!! it’s really quite worth it though you’ll get angry at certain characters/ actions/ decisions throughout the show
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Pretty good for a harem story!
OVERALLThis drama has a lot of things going on: murder-mystery, slow-burn romance, harem drama, political intrigue...but somehow, they combine nicely into a plot that is, if not the best, definitely entertaining enough to keep you watching until the end! Watch it if 1) you like smart female leads, 2) you need plots with few holes, where everything serves a purpose to the story, 3) you want to be surprised by a few plot twists. Think twice if 1) you need fast-paced, smexy romantic scenes, 2) you hate harem drama or political intrigues, 3) you are easily and greatly bothered by repetitiveness in dramas.
THE STORY
This drama has a lot more strengths than weaknesses, but the weaknesses weigh a lot, so they are worth considering. Let me start with the good. First, one thing that's clear about this drama is that it pushes a feminist agenda. FL is gifted in embroidery and wants to work for the people, but women at the time had to marry and stay at home, and that's one of the main conflicts of the series. I found this to be one of the best aspects of the show because the drama depicts the condition of women and Shiyi's frustration and avantgarde personality in a very realistic way. She's the odd sheep in the herd and it's really hard work for her to try to do what she likes to do. Secondly, I really enjoyed FL, Shiyi. What's great about the FL of this drama is that she's strong and smart, but in a feminine way. These days we see lots of strong FLs but they tend to lean more towards typical masculine traits (eg. Changge from Long Ballad, FL of Oh My General of My General and I), or be somewhat non-gendered and not caring about either masculine or feminine stuff. Shiyi is absolutely feminine. Her hobbies are typically female and she does all typically female tasks well. I think it's great to show that femininity can come with the strength and the smarts too. Another thing that's cool is that you can see how much power and influence she has over everyone around her, because all character and relationship developments in the drama are linked to her. She's just boss. And then one last positive aspect of Sword & Brocade is the romance. I personally am very bothered by love lines with crappy development, and it's kind of on the rise these days. It's common to see the OTP fall in love out of nowhere or go through a decent "falling in love" period, but the falling in love doesn't actually make sense. That's not the case with this drama. It takes FOREVER for the love to bloom, but it's realistic, and I was living for it. The journey is just as important, if not more, than the destination, and I'm glad this drama got it.
On the bad side, for someone like me who's not particularly fond of harem stories, Sword & Brocade feels EXTREMELY repetitive. It's literally 40 episodes of scheming evil women. The murder-mystery and political intrigues spice it up a bit, but by the end, I was kind of getting tired of the never-ending harem drama. It felt like more of the same. Always some girl trying to shame, frame and ruin another girl's life, and sometimes with no valid reason. The ML's mother was not helping at all; she was like a broken record. 40 episodes of her doing and saying the same thing, over and over again. Another think that irked me a bit were the few inconsistencies. There aren't a lot, but there are one or two instances in which the behavior of a character (especially FL at some point) seems extremely out of sync with how the character's been portrayed, or an event felt too forced/ridiculous. These issues aren't bad enough to make you stop watching, but they do make the experience of watching Sword & Brocade less enjoyable with time, especially the harem drama, so beware!
THE ACTING
It worked! In general I have no complaints for the main cast. I liked Wallace here more than in General & I, his character was MUCH better. Same thing for Songyun, I tried watching Under the Power before but couldn't stand her character. Shiyi is much better. Chemistry-wise, there are some sparks between them but it's not the most impressive couple in the chemistry department. They make up for it with cute and fun scenes though, so it's fine! I didn't like the stereotypical character of Consort Qian, but the acting was okay. Honestly, my only complaint is the acting of one of the kids - but it was kind of hilarious too, so I let it pass!
THE MUSIC
Quite good. Won't keep listening to anything now that the show's over but it actually left a positive impression on me!
REWATCH VALUE
I'm writing this review after watching the drama a second time, so it definitely is a drama you can watch again. However, maybe not without skipping some parts!
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Only one word: Anxiety
I'm still not so used to writing reviews and this is my second one, I'm so sorry for the next mess.If you have seen some historical, in particular long ones like this, you already know that there are a lot of tense moments followed by a bit of calm, but here I found myself assisting with a state of perennial anxiety!
The poor protagonist never has a moment of peace and even when she does nothing, she is blamed for something (If you are like me that you will surely hate Qiao Liang Fang and Madame Xu)
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Mature leads that shares the same values and love that is built on trust
First of all, I really love Tan Song Yun in almost all her dramas. She is one of the c-actress that I think has an eye when choosing script and dramas. Her acting is very natural and she looks really good in both modern and historical dramas. And she did it again, this drama never disappoint me at all.I love how both ML and FL are very mature in handling their relationship and things around them. In fact, Shi Yi (FL) is considered young in the show and she is married into the ML family with a bunch of concubines and annoying mother-in-law for the sake of protecting her nephew's place in the ML family. She herself came from a aristocratic household and is always seen as an option to her family. The drama shows how she survives in the family and wins the trust and love from the ML.
Back to the romance, it's not fireworks or love at first sight. It's pretty slow burn and although ML had a few other concubines but does not marry them by love. He respected his mother and his wishes but we do see him "rebel" abit when he fell in love with FL. It also does not have the "hero save beauty" kind of plot. In most times, both of them do not push pull with each other and have good and mature conversations with each other. I really love both their characters and I felt that the actor and actress did very well.
It's been a long while since I watched dramas like this and I highly recommend this if you haven't watch!
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If you want to take a break from action dramas this is for you!
The story lacked something. I did stay with it because of Wallace Chung who is one of my top Chinese Actors. I love dramas that have a lot of action in it which I felt this didn't have as much. I know how good Wallace Chung acts when it comes to martial arts such as the "General and I" which is my #1 Wallace Chung drama. Knowingly this is a historic drama for China, they have to be pretty careful in how the storyline goes. Wallace Chung who played Xu Ling Yi played his part really well, I can't deny that. Seven Tan who played Luo Shi Yi Niang, this my first watching this actress and I don't want to make a review on her just yet.The only thing that I credit this Cdrama was the fact that Luo Shi Yi Niang took herself out of the palace to help other women in the Embroidery business which made me happy therefore I rated this drama 8.5. I also did love the visuals as far as the location, costumes, and the embroidery was beautiful. Thanking the rest of the cast for their acting skills.
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Value to watch !
I decided to watch this drama because of Female lead (Seven Tan). However, I fall in live with many character in this drama.Plot : This drama is about family culture, planning , politic and love. This plot is very good and make people excited all episodes. The improvement of story is not boring and charming. The story reflected people as real about Love, selfish and etc. Moreover, the importance thing that I like is empower women and hardship of women in the past. Many scene shows about the ideal of strong women and empower us.
Character/ Actor : All actors are talents even the slaves in the story. All characters have a movement and lively. We can not forecast that which character is good or bad.
Overall: Personally, I like everything about these story. This is good and perfect for every angle.
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harem, harem and harem!
harem!!the drama theme that i mostly avoid watching becauze harem is always full of backstabbing women and bullying. but this time i gave it a try.
turned out just like i thought. full of bullying and backstabbing. but i managed to make it to ep 43 with lots of skipping scenes.
story:
doesnt suit my taste. harem, harem and harem. the story flow feels too draggy. it could've been better if it only had 30 eps. 47 eps full of backstabbing is just too much for me.
casts:
- tan song yun is good. she suits for the role. she looks very mature. i like it when she smiles. however i feel like something is a bit off.
- wallace chung is a bit dull here. idk. probably the character needed him to. i dont like him here despite his good acting.
- daddi tang xiaotian, this is the first time i watch his drama. his acting is a bit stiff, but he has potential, not so disappointing.
music:
music is good. especially the one that zhou shen sings. he always amazes me. every song he sings sounds so beautiful.
is it recommandable?
i might say yes, but not much. if you can handle 47 eps of backstabbing then you're good to go. if not, i doubt that you will enjoy this drama.
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This drama infuriates me to the point of no return
I'm not even going to bother write a long descriptive review for this drama. That would simply be a waste of my effort.Among the cast I really used to like the ML, saw him in General and I, as Chu Beiji. He was really cool there. But here he appears annoying solely due to the story. I absolutely hate the Fl and Tan Song Yun's face doesn't help at all. This is the most infuriating FL I've come across in a while (and I've read tons of crappy transmigration novels, none of them are this bad).
This kind of dog blood dramas should be banned. People have nothing to do than just get up and scheme all day long with the most annoying tone of voice ever. I have seen many many palace dramas, and none of them harem schemes are as bad as this. This is just plain boring and dumb. The FL lead has such a annoying face, makes my blood boil. I really wanted her to suffer more but she didn't. The ML looks attractive in other dramas is reduced to a pig trotter here. What sword and brocade, rename this to “The Green tea b1tch and the pig trotter+ his 101 useless concubines”.
The only likable thing about this drama is not even in the drama, it's a teaser trailer with the red string of fate concept. Though I'd appreciate if it didn't include the Fl's face.
0/10 would never come close to anything like this.
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Best Character of FL
I'm falling in love with seven tan character.She want to prove that women can do everything she can as like a man do to. She's strong and independent girls, never jealous for someone cause she can do the best as she can for her life.First, I don't like a harem story or like ML has so many girls in his life. But from this drama I know that he can choose his life to marriage with someone he love. But when he marry lady Si he found that his falling in love for the first time with someone who trust to his life.
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Good drama
This is the first time that i write a comment here, i personally like this drama because the story is good, both main leads have great chemistry in their acting. I am looking forward to the remaining episodes, hope to see how the two main leads begin to fall in love with one another. Even though the first two episodes were slightly boring, however i was glad that the following episodes bring so much joy and excitement to the audience, it is so funny to see how the main ML wanted to come close to the FL and yet he is too prideful to express his affection, but he did not stop drawing close to her, he did many things to capture her attentions, that was quite cute and funny.Was this review helpful to you?
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I'm tired of being angry after this drama
I can’t even begin to express how relieved I am that I wasn’t born in China during this timeline as a woman. Men treating women like objects, collecting concubines, and then turning around and saying, “Oh, I didn’t know you had feelings,” is just infuriating. And then the women are constantly fighting for the chance to live, only to be blamed for everything that goes wrong. The FL’s life is a mess—growing up as the child of a concubine, and what changed after getting married to a man most likely twice her age is NOTHING.. And nothing changes! After 45 episodes of pain, Old Lady Xu finally says, “Oh, what a good person she is,” but only because she’s about to be executed. The ML is also a walking red flag—he makes you question if men ever emotionally grow. This man ruins a woman’s life just because his wife and mother said so, and then after she dies, he just keeps on living like nothing happened. Also that abusive piece of trash who dies halfway through the show? Don’t even get me started.Not gonna lie though, the second male lead? Hands down my favorite. He’s honest, smart, and probably written by a woman who knows what’s up.
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