Do you love to hate treacherous women?
I'm slowly falling in love with the male lead. I find the storyline interesting. Why? The male lead already has several concubines before marrying the second wife (female lead). We already know it will be drama with women sharing the same house and fighting for one man's affection. However, like the series Yanxi Palace, the lead female has a reason to enter the Xu household, and it has nothing to do with the affections of the male lead. That's right; initially, she's not interested in him and speaks her mind freely. There's also a similarity to the Story of Ming Lan, where both females marry a Marquis and live in a house of treacherous scheming women. Yes, I can give more examples, but you get the picture. Actress Seven Tan is adorable and can be considered a serious female lead. Every character she plays is alluring and makes you want to keep watching to the end. The male lead, Wallace Chung, plays the cold Marquis who takes responsibility for his women, especially the main wife. He seems emotionally distant from all of his women yet believes in love but has yet to experience it. Therefore, he only wishes to live amicably while taking care of his responsibilities. This production has a 50/50 chance of ending on a good note.Was this review helpful to you?
Cannot seem to stop watching it!
Series is still ongoing and just cannot help to write a prelim. review for those looking for new drama to watch. So far it's been an addiction for me.Story line is pretty easy to follow and typical in my opinion but it's written and developed well. Fell a similar vibe as "The reputable family, The merchant, and General & I" thus if you like those series, you should like this one as well. Characters and their relationship developing throughout the episodes...still not sure where the story will go (maybe I should read the novel too lol) but hopefully won't be one of those with many fillers just to extend the series.
There is a separate discussion about the "harem" but don't let this deter you from watching (I almost drop it myself at first).
Cast are seasoned Actors/Actresses, it feels realistic and very believable up to this point.
Overall, I really like the series and cannot seem to stop watching and waiting for the next episode!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Hope there will be happy ending.
Beautiful story , credit to the writer and producer.So far , I am enjoying watching this drama even it was little boring in the first few episodes.
First I didn’t like the male lead has too many wives and he doesn’t smile at all but really glad that he will find some someone to make him falling in true love and smile again . Wallace is so talented , charming and handsome actor who does a great job professionally.
Love how strong, smart and funny the female lead is ...Seven Tan is very cute and adorable, she is such a beautiful actress.
A successful soundtrack can always convince the audiences to look forward to watching the film.
Thank you for English Subtitles.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A slow paced, well developed period drama with romance and betrayal within an aristocratic family.
I watched this drama a couple of months ago, and I fell in love with the way that the story was told. I will admit that I didn't think this drama would be good after watching the first episode, but I was wrong! This drama reminds me a lot of the drama The Story of Ming Lan. The only con to this drama, and most Chinese period dramas is the fact that the amount of episodes are more than required. After the male and female lead finally felt secure in their marriage, I lost interest, only because it took almost 30 episodes to get there, and I felt like it could have just ended there. Maybe one day I will pick this drama back up but right now in my mind, this drama is worthy of a 9 for the first 30 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I probably would still give them a perfect score whatever happens in the remaining episodes
First of all I know I'm biased. But Wallace is my favorite actor especially his He Yi Chen portrayal. And Seven is my costume drama fairy because I only enjoy her Yuan Jinxia performance.Second let me discuss what I don't like;
The screenwriter has a really great source material worthy of becoming a classic but decided to take the easy road by writing the popular and overused scenes like the hero saves a lady as the first encounter. I understand they don't want issues with plagiarism because it can bring a lot of problems. But after watching 8 episodes I think no one can say they plagiarized. Imagine characters have different personality ,missing main characters , additional characters and different storyline. Sister Zhen and the Binju are not in the story which is quite surprising because Shiyi easily got foothold of the Xu mansion because of sister Zhen. And Binju is her most loyal maid unlike Donqing. So yes the scriptwriter deserved the criticism.
Then the plot holes which is still due to the screenwriter. Best example would be the concubine Qiao LAN managing the household. I mean Madam Tai is still active, there is still the second lady and the fifth lady. So why does they let a concubine take charge? Wouldn't they be a laughingstock?
What I like
The acting is really great. I've read the novel and I love it but I still enjoy the series because the cast are great.
The costume looks beautiful. I've seen criticism about the costume andn I dont know if they are right but when I checked out the supposed costume I'm glad they didn't use that because I like what they use now.
All the OST sounds great.
The pace is good. It's not dragging and it's not too fast. It's just right.
The voice sounds good to me. Either Seven's real voice or Wallace dubbed voice.
Lastly did I tell you I love the main actors?
Was this review helpful to you?
Not bad but not that exciting either
Story: The is a chill drama with a slow-burn romance. There was nothing wrong with the story, it just wasn't exciting. The gist is that the FL marries into the ML household in order to investigate her mothers untimely death. The ML has a harem of women but he isn't in love with any of them. He feels more of a duty towards them. This may turn off some viewers but I personally didn't mind it since this was common in that time period.I dropped this drama mainly because there was nothing compelling me to keep watching. The romance while I think well developed was really slow. The scheming within the household was pretty standard and the mystery surrounding the mother was slowly revealed.
Acting: I thought the acting was fine--nothing exceptional. Although it was pointed out that the FL dubbed her own voice which I appreciate.
OST: Some memorable songs such as "Want to be Together" (要一起) By Zhou Shen (周深)
Rewatch: I may come back to this and finish it but it is low on my priority list.
Was this review helpful to you?
Failed attempt to recreate the magic of Ming Lan
This is a sleep fest. The story if existent is boring . Lady protagonist , although does things behind family’s back , most of the time lying and has hidden agenda, is a very strong ethical character( or so we must assume). It looked like they tried very hard to make it look like Ming Lan . Lost patience after 30 episodes. It has no story . Female lead was a disappointment both in terms of acting and the character. The lead characters have no chemistry. They tried to build up suspense of the female protagonist’s mother’s murder and it was a long stretch. She could put Sherlock Holmes to shame.Well that was my take. See if you like it.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Back stabbing women...
Ok...this drama isn't my cup of tea..I watched this because of Seven Tan...she's a great actress. But oh boy....I can't stand it when women back stabbing, bad mouthing each other just to gain favor from the husband they share. 4 wives, mother in law, an over bearing mother, jealous sister Er Niang (not to mention a brother and sister in law at the same premises), inserted their influences with their charm or devious act or authority to this poor guy the good general Xu Ling Yi - he's overwhelmed. I guess he made the bed and he need to laid on it....no wonder he look so tired in every episode with the full house of women bickering. I guess Seven Tan was the recipient of all the bad vibes, defensive fort to stand guard against all strong willed and crazy craved women...so I gave up. In my opinion, we don't need to watch all these bad s**t characters and be the judged who's better than the other. Sorry....Was this review helpful to you?
5 episodes too much.
PeachBlossomGoddess’s review was spot on. This drama was slow and rediculous in some parts. The blind obedience to the mother is crazy. How a grown man and general puts up with this foolishness is unbelievable. And talk about emotional guilt tripping. This should have stopped at episode 39 or 40. And still we don’t know who killed the FL mother. Does it really matter? Good acting, but the story became boring that you almost longed for more poisonings.Was this review helpful to you?
World of drama difficult to live in and even more difficult to watch due to poor writing
I finished watching it thanks to the fast forward button and the actress playing the female lead, who gave good performance and was quite captivating.The plot drags on unbearably, full of inconsistencies, absurdities, and worn-out clichés. On one hand, we see a society where women cannot appear in public, yet it is a woman who runs the embroidery workshop, and all the concubines and wives move around the city quite freely to carry out their schemes, without any supervision or veils to hide their identities. They even visit prisons themselves. Not to mention that the FL meets her male friend (2ML) on several occasions. In the house with such strict rules maids can interrupt and give their opinions without any consequences which is another example of non-consistent world created by writer. Xu family after their downfall has no backing in government which we can clearly see, but their second son is married with a princess. Given the logic of the Xu family's world, it's unbelievable that no one in this family has attempted to poison the FL or the matriarch (mother in law of FL), who is more scheming and cruel then those supposed as drama villains. Watching her behavior for more than 40 episodes makes her final transformation is unbelievable.
Most of the characters are either caricatures or barely sketched out, despite having 45 episodes. Some characters disappear without a trace after a particular storyline begins, only to return after several episodes. These subplots add nothing except to reinforce the positive traits of the FL. The main antagonists are completely one-dimensional, and the intelligence with which they plot their schemes makes it hard to believe that this family could effectively hide their actions for so many years. I immediately guessed who their spy in the Xu family was.
As the FL is smart, energetic and likeable, the ML is passive and simply boring – that is unfortunately mostly due to poor writing of his character. Because of that, it is really difficult to see any trace of chemistry between main couple.
Visuals are not something worth mentioning with pale coloring and visibly artificial materials of costumes. The positive aspect is music with beautiful songs.
Was this review helpful to you?
Second time AROUND...OUTSTANDING!!!
After watching for a second time I rate this a TEN!!! The acting is outstanding! Wallace Chung in The Sword and The Brocade Chinese Drama (2021)Wallace Chung .... A VERY FINE ACTOR!
Did you watch "Because of Love."
Tan Song Yun ...You can't can't get better !!!
As a Ming Dynasty drama it comes the closest representing the historical tradition and duty,portrays a suppressed society for the women of that era. Bound by tradition and duty and Filial piety during the Ming Dynasty under Confucianism.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yanxi palace-lite with tired tropes
I say yanxi palace lite because the revenge arcs and plotting never get to the nasty level that yanxi does, and essentially it's the same tired story. Several women fighting amongst themselves over one man, with one particularly antagonistic one doing all sorts of evil things to get the attention of a man who never loved her.And then misunderstanding after misunderstanding with the usual nasty bullying MIL. I played this drama in the background while i did stuff, never felt i missed anything. There is no true conflict just small conflict arcs filled with misunderstandings. With "sword" in the title i dont know why i half expected fight scenes lol but never happened. Lol
The acting of the leads are great though and hold down the story, was the reason i continued watching.
The costumes are unique with the stiff high collar and very pretty with gorgeous colours. The hair pieces the ladies wore were not too elaborate and very delicate and elegant.
Was this review helpful to you?
