The Sword and the Brocade

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.

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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?

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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.

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Iqiyi

When story is written with with overly victimized lead character that runs 3/4 of episodes long, it gets tiring and exhausting. The romance and triumphs were overshadowed by excessive degradation of the lead character and couple of other female characters.
It would have been nice if there was a balance but mostly the story from beginning evolves around the lead character being put down, degraded, humiliated, hurt, set aside, bullied, plotted against, etc. Gets exhausting to watch something like this even when the ending is in positive good light.
The lead female doesnt seem to fit the character. I was not content with her portrayal of a victimized person that only knows how to be nice and sweet to get through the abuse. There were a few situations wherein by speaking up she could have avoided the chaos but it was written to produce chaos to solve.

The male lead was convincing with his portrayal.
The wardrobe dept did a great job. Production obviously put a lot of work on details.
There's light humor that if you dont pay attention, youll miss. Many scenes that were unnecessary.

All artists were excellent in portraying their roles. Its the way the story was written that exhausted me emotionally.

I am seriously wondering why the writer didnt consider writing this story in a way that showed a much stronger character for the female lead.
At any rate, for me, I prefer to be entertained not be irritated consistently enduing 45 episodes of consecutive bullying, plotting, chaos and problems.
I probably wod have not fast forward a lot if theres a hook of triumps & accomplishment for every 10 degradation, bullying, and abuse but its a continuous negativity and suffering for the female lead and other female characters that i got exhausted and frustrated.

The ending is good but just like anything positive ornrewarding it was short and glossed over.

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Wallace Chung caught my ?

Can't believe he's 51 years old by the time I finished watching this drama. But phew what a journey. Story is old school theme; belittled concubine daughter turns out very smart, logical, and sensible. She didn't ask to be a marquis' wife, but circumstances put her that way. And unlike the other 3 concubines the marquis already has, she didn't bother to fight for his affection nor favor. She has embroidering skill and wants to do business with brocade while fighting a stereotype of a noble woman shouldn't do any business. She did it in secret. Everything is fine from the beginning, the plot is written with care, the slow burn romance is fun to watch because ML has so little smile but the changes can be seen after he fell in love with his wife. BUT, thing go downhill after episode 38. The repetitive plot (betrayed by her trusted maid, stabbed in the back by jealousy concubines) just to get rid of some ppl so we can get the ending, which is "the husband who is devoted to his wife, he won't take on another concubine". And of course some fight to beat the corrupt minister who wants to take down the marquis. I hope china film industry can fix this kind of plot. I keep watching these kind of series because i want to see the lovely costumes, the acting skill, and the cinematic feels of the environment but the story always threw me off the drain.

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Continuos engaños al espectador en una trama que prometía

La historia empieza bien, con unas bases interesantes, pero a medida que avanza se enreda en trucos de trama que ya no deberían tolerarse hoy en día. La impermeabilidad del algunos personajes (como es el caso de la abuela, utilizada continuamente como antagonista de pocas luces) junto a trucos de melodrama fáciles y recurrentes hace que mi valoración, de un 9,5 casi 10, haya ido bajando hasta un 7. Esto último obedece al buen hacer de sus dos protagonistas sobre todo: buen acting y gran entrega al drama. Por lo demás, si querían tratar el tema de la situación de las mujeres (me parece una idea fantástica) podrían haber trabajado de manera más creativa en vez de ir y volver sobre temas de manera ramplona y maniquea. Una decepción.

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Your typical family vs power plot show

I jumped onto this series pretty late, more to fill my time while I wait for other dramas, and for that, I admit, it was a great time filler! But like most of the comments in here, I understand where everyone was coming from and I'll admit, I was skipping a lot towards the mid-end half of the show. The only reason I stayed was because I was curious to find out what the ending was.

Here's what I did like:
Though quite predictable of a family vs power plot, I liked the maturity in the acting. You hated all the evil characters and rooted for the ones you loved. I especially liked that the storyline does put more emphasis on female roles in the family and they made the FL lead look incredibly witty and cunning. I loved that she wasn't weak all the time. I loved that the FL and ML had that mutual understanding and were great offsets to each other and their plans. Unlike the late Matron who you could tell, was so hell bent on scheming like her Mother. I almost felt sorry for the ML to have been married to her for as long as they were.

Loved all the soundtracks to this series! Jin Wen Qi's was my favourite.

Here's what I didn't like:
It was incredibly slow! The series could have easily been a 30-35 pt series and it would have been fine. There was sooo much scheming, plotting, revenge between all the concubines that it was starting to irritate me. But without it, I guess you could say there wouldn't be much to the storyline then.

I'm not a huge fan of voice subbing, so I was a little disappointed that they had Wallace subbed in. But that's just a very personal opinion. I find it a huge discredit to the actors who already put so much effort in memorising lines and acting it out.

I also wasn't a huge fan at the production. Don't get me wrong, the sets were beautiful, outfits were nice too! But the way they cut scenes and faded it out sometimes felt like it was done so hastily and abruptly, I almost wondered whether I was missing scenes or if it got cut for censorship reasons. They could have done the transitions a lot more smoothly I felt.

And lastly, I wished that there were more romance between the FL and ML. Not necessarily physical scenes, but more on the expressing their feelings. I didn't see why they had to wait nearly 35 episodes in before she could have done that. The only moment I really felt the love between the two was at the ending when Shi Yi was going get beheaded and he comes to talk to her in her cell. Though I understand the age gaps that was portrayed in the show, I did feel a disconnect between them and felt their relationship felt more like a business partners than they did as a married couple.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? If you have nothing else to watch, yes. :)

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Production quality rivals Yanxi Palace, story falls short

The makeup, costume and set design may even be better than Yanxi Palace. Hair pieces, furniture and clothing were gorgeous and intricate. They really paid attention to the little details. Cinematography was very good, you can tell right away when you watch the title opening. The wide angle shots with really slow push ins looked great.

Where it fell short was the story, which wasn't bad by any means but it felt like it had more potential. The dialogue was very well written. It started strong and was engaging right away, but once the characters became familiar, it rarely felt like the pay off was worth the story arc build ups.

Side characters had more interesting character development than the leads. After a while, the leads' chemistry grew saccharine from repetition. The female lead's characterization was a bit problematic for me. We want to root for the female lead, but she was too good, smart, and righteous so at times she felt unlikable. The writers had her uncharacteristically neglect some others around her for the sake of story so she came off hypocritical or cold, despite her warm smile. I really liked the male lead's background story, repressed nature and stoic demeanor.

The acting was very good overall. Concubine Qiao stood out. She was excellent. I really liked 2nd sister and Dong Qing a lot as well, they brought a levity that the show needed.

I was impressed by the male lead doing a lot of his own stunt work. You could tell he trained hard. His horse riding, archery and sword fighting looked excellent.

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Wonderful love story, but the plot has lots of problems

What I discovered after watching The Sword and the Brocade
- Women are bloody scary when they're having tea with you
- Forehead kisses are better than bedroom scenes
- Ming dynasty mother-in-laws are scarier than the T-1000.

I had long avoided *The Sword of the Brocade* for the following reasons:
- I was super not impressed with Tan Song Yun's performance and was majorly annoyed with her aegyo character in *Under the Power*.
- In general, I dislike harem dramas intensely. I just don't like watching women bully each other.

But for some reason I am suddenly in a romantic mood for mature, adult, slow burn, arranged marriage romance and the *The Sword and the Brocade* delivers.

I really loved Shi Yi and Ling Yi's gradual attraction to each other and I love Wallace Chung and Tan Song Yun's performance. I believe that Tan dubbed herself, and it really brought a lot of nuance and colour to her character.

I didn't find Wallace Chung attractive at first, but he is so manly, honourable and considerate as Ling Yi that these qualities end up making him very attractive indeed.

And yes, yes, this is one of those dramas with misunderstandings between our couple, but it's not at epic proportions like Love and Redemption.

I don't seem to mind misunderstandings and lack of communication in romance dramas as I find them morbidly enjoyable. But if you hate this be warned as the Show has one major arc with that.

(Also, I'd like to report that Wallace Chung is such a good kisser. Like, no fish-eyed kisses, people! But one filled with intense passion and desperate hunger. *Fans self*.)

However, I confess that I skipped or fast forwarded a lot of scheming concubine parts because I can't stand a lot of that. At times I found the mother-in-laws (both Madam Xu and Luo) intolerable.

Yet, despite their horrid scheming, I have a lot of sympathy for the concubines. I felt their pain and sorrow when Ling Yi rebuff their efforts to gain his attention. As for Qiao Lian Fang, the primary evil concubine? Nah, she deserves everything she got lol.

But while it tries to convey the painful lives of concubines and women in ancient Ming dynasty times, but it was clumsily done.

And as with so many Chinese dramas, for some reason, the last 10 episodes was a rush of betrayals and schemes, a lot of them lacking logic.

If I were to rate the way they had written romance between our main couple, it would be an 8.5.

But for the plot involving the evil Ou family, concubines and more? Oof, it'll be a 6 or less.

So, I can only give it an slightly above average rating rather than excellent.

But I still highly recommend this drama if you like watching slow burn romance and arranged marriages. Our leads are really good and you will really enjoy their performances.

Rating: 7.5

I wrote a longer, more detailed review here: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/the-sword-and-the-brocade-review/

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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.

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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....

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