Have the Kleenex ready
I haven't cried this much since Goodbye My Princess. The only saving grace for my poor shattered heart is that this is the first of two parts with the modern drama promising a happier ending. Since it's pretty much been touted as such online, even by the actors and studio, I don't feel as if this is in any way a spoiler. Having said that, I'll jump right into what I loved about this show. No cons because honestly, I don't have any.First of all, the acting. The acting is fantastic with so many familiar faces. I actually found myself trying to pick out all the actors who had starred together in recent dramas together such as Song of Youth or Under the Power. Nobody presented themselves as a weak link here, and the two main leads have amazing chemistry together. I knew that Allen Ren conveys a ton of emotion through his eyes, but I think Bai Liu really shone here as well - she really had to since some of the earliest episodes presented her character as being mute.
Secondly, the plot. Very, very good. Excellent feel-good comedic moments (the look of astonishment on the ML's face as the FL gives her daily obeisances was priceless) and sweetness without artifice in their romance. The tragic parts were unavoidable - the "prequel" and their star-crossed status being what drives the modern installment - but done so well that even as I bawled my eyes out, I could appreciate how it slowly developed and was written in an inescapable fashion but without casting a shadow over the happier moments. I also DEEPLY appreciated that the FL was not a sniveling brat and the ML was not tragically stupid. Not a single pouty, arm-swinging, baby-talking moment in the entire 24 episode run. Whew!
The background score was sweeping and the use of various stringed instrumented gave scenes a melancholy note which was appropriate for the theme. Definitely going to rewatch, but I need to catch Forever and Ever first and give my poor eyes a break from the boo-hoo fest.
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This review may contain spoilers
The power of restrained love.
It was'nt until episode 9 I was completely invested with the storyline. 2 months ago, I started this because of all the hypes sorrounding this drama but at that time I can't moved past episode 6 because of the painfully slow and boring storyline thus put it on-hold. Why I picked this up again? Because I'm currently under Allen Ren's spell after watching him in TBW and have yet to recover. So this was my second drama of him. Don't read further if you have'nt watch this drama yet because my review a.k.a rambling contained many spoilers. Don't say I don't warned you.I didn't read any spoilers about the storyline or the ending prior to watching OAO so I was able to enjoy this as much as I can . Ignorance is indeed a bliss as they say. Let only suffer when the suffering comes. Here, I was hoping and praying for our main leads to get the ending they deserved especially our beautiful bone man, Zhou Sheng Chen. The ending made me feeling so angry and sad and angry and sad and angry and sad in a never ending loop...Tbh, I was more angry than sad.. I did'nt cried at all watching the last few eps because I was too furious watching bad people easily had their ways. Only my heart's wailing noiselessly just like Shi Yi's wailing in her mute mode . I am really pissed off that bad people (esp this xf**&^! two-faced snake, Liu Zixing) got to live longer though miserable but still longer than our main leads. He got many screentimes till the end. OAO can't help but remind me of drama The Red Sleeve (Korea) and The Crown Princess (Thai) as they had few similarities.
Plotwise, I guess ms writer was happy she achieved all her objectives with this drama. What shown in Drama is real,people. So,suck it up. Life is unfair. Not all love is united in this world. Good people always gone too soon and bad people always get to live longer. I don't want to get into details of reason why I rate what I rate. I just want to express my thought so that one day I can read this 5/7/10 years later and say '' Oh, this was one of the drama that I watched back in 2022 and made me in so much pain mids and post-watching.'' '' Allen Ren was perfect back then as he still is in the present . ''
Allen Ren's acting as Zhou Sheng Chen was perfect. All his expressions were flawless and he delivered perfectly. His chemistry with Bai Lu as Shi Yi was evident and palpable. All the longings, starings and deeds they did for each other knowingly and unknowingly I could felt it deep in my bones. OAO showed us how to make a perfect romance drama without kiss.
To conclude my rambling, I just want to ask and say all these to him. ''Is this life what you really want ZSC? You can't be real. It is a major crime to be as selfless as you, yk. What was the point of all that sacrifices when you still can't prevent war after you 've gone. What you did was pointless. People you loves still dies in agony one after another. You love your country to death but that very country failed you. Why can't you be selfish for once. Atleast ,take Shi Yi and run to South !!! You deserved all the happiness in this world . You deserved better...''
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Worst C-drama I've ever seen
This drama is completely destroyed y the script & storyline. It features an ultimately fatally (literally) idiotic, albeit moral and self-sacrficing MML. a feeble and likewise self-sacrificing FML, and a second "villainous" MML who nverthelesscomes out on top. (The last, rushed episode is just an afterthought).At many key points the protagonists could make different, but equally ethical decisions - thus the air of inevitability the script is trying to convey is simply deceitful.
Also irritating are the prolonged "romantic" scenes with their dreadful sung underpinnings. Pointless padding, given the ultimate, largely catastrophic outcome. This drama fails essentially on its internal inconsistency
So: Worst I've ever seen, out of well over a hundred. The only positive aspect is video quality. But how anybody other than a weepie addict could give this more than 5.0 beats me.
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Currently on ep. 15, i never imagined that these little thing could bring me to tears, so easy, again and again a lots of time!
A drama which I can finally mark as idol drama I have ever watched it have all of my criterias that I request from series, though it didn't have the happy ending the one of my basic requirement but it just broke every barrier amd created a world itself which is totally justified, remarkable and acceptable, i was totally worth watching it, all the tears and throat lump I had were worthit! Now 2nd season.... Otherwise I can't handle
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WHAT A TRAGIC AND SAD DRAMA. I'M SPEECHLESS.
This drama is unbelievably sad. I was not ready for the ending and how things played out. I usually can predict how things might go and I got some things right, and some things completely shook me.I haven't cried so much over a show since Empress Ki or Prince of Lan Ling. Those shows made me avoid tragic stories for YEARS. And yet here I am again, but there are so many good reasons why this show was not a waste of time.
(1) THE OST is stunning. Whoever sings the end credits has the most haunting voice ever and I could hum along to that melody for weeks. It's so beautiful and the soundtracks used were well-timed throughout the show.
(2) THE CINEMATOGRAPHY & FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY is 10/10. 100% some of the best battle choreography I've seen. The rhythm of the fights along with the perfectly planned shots and angles for each moment of the battle made it so easy to follow who was getting stabbed and who was doing the stabbing.
(3) THE ACTING. I was so hesitant about the male lead for 50% of the show for personal reasons, but by the end, like most of the characters in the show, I also fell for him too and believed that he truly was a hero. Bai Lu can do absolutely no wrong. I only saw her in Love is Sweet which is a contemporary drama, but I'm so impressed by how natural and subtle her facial expressions are. As an editor, it would be a dream to edit an actor whose emotions are so subtle and hidden in small actions. It makes a story easier to tell.
(4) The COSTUMES were obviously gorgeous. Shiyi wore blue 99% of the time throughout the entire show, until the end where she wore red. I loved the black dragon outfit for the Emperor's enthronement and the beautiful white outfits for the General/ML.
(5) THE MESSAGE is so deep and I'll be honest, it's not a new concept in the historical drama category. Two princes - one prince is desperate to have the love of people, Shiyi and fate and seeks it through evil. The other prince doesn't care to have the love of anybody, not even fate, and lives righteously. In the end, it's the latter prince who ends up with Shiyi's, the people and even fate's (shout out to the sequel) love.
(6) THERE'S A SEQUEL SO EVERYONE CALM DOWN WE'RE GETTING A HAPPY ENDING. I hope. I shall find out.
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A beautifully told tragedy of love that fills you with anguish, but worth the tears
This was... phenomenally beautiful. That's the best word I have for this show - it was tragic, it was beautiful, it was one of the best storytelling I've ever seen. Everything about this show is just gentle, tender, pure, unadulterated, unconditional LOVE. Watching the leads fall in love with each other was so incredibly gratifying and they have made their way into my top10 cdrama couples. The best part of this show was how beautifully their story was told - they are so devoted to each other and they care so deeply for each other, yet neither neglect the heavy duty weighing on their shoulders and on their heart. That is what makes this show so heartwrenchingly gutting - this delicate balance of deep love and heavy duty.Bailu and Allen Ren have really good chemistry, and they were born to play these roles. I cannot imagine anyone else playing these characters - they do such an excellent job of showing that deep, gentle, pure love that withstands time and tribulation. It isn't the electric kind of chemistry that ignites heat and passion, no it is far from that, it is the pure kind of chemistry that just gives you the vibes of "yes, they suit each other so well" and they honestly look like a young married couple in most of their scenes. They just complement each other so well, not just in terms of visuals but also in terms of their roles and characters. Both of them did a wonderful acting job here. Bailu was amazing at bringing the role of Shi Yi to life, embodying the gentle and elegant, graceful and delicate, intelligent and serene character as one who has been raised in a prestigious, wealthy family. I also think she deserves HIGH praise for her absolute mastery of crying scenes - and she had so many. She truly made me feel her pain, agony, and sorrow, and I honestly felt like my heart was being SQUEEZED into a pulp whenever she sobbed because she did so with so much emotion. Allen Ren was also phenomenal - he EMBODIED the sophisticated, fierce, confident, and righteous warrior/general. He suits the role so well because he truly brought Zhou Sheng Chen to life with undeniable aura - you really feel how influential and powerful and skilled he is as well as how respected he is as a general. I would even venture to say that these roles are Bailu and Allen's best characters, the type that they are both most suited to act as. Truly, I was blown away at how well-suited they were for their roles AND for each other.
I do have to take a moment to talk about the score and the music - EXCELLENT. I have 0 complaints, the OSTs were paired so so so well and really heightened the emotion of every scene. One of the best shows I have seen when it comes to apt OST or BGM pairing. The only other shows that match this drama's level when it comes to music (at least, from the shows I have watched) are Love Between Fairy and Devil and Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. The music in this show was truly so well done.
The actual plot of this show was almost entirely about palace politics and corruption and power wrestles and I did not gaf about any of it, to be very frank, it was pretty dry and I skipped over most of the plot scenes. I wouldn't say the plot is predictable, and honestly many twists surprised me at least a little, and though it isn't anything crazy or entirely new, it was still pretty watchable. The love story of the main couple was definitely the main focus of this show though so the plot does not play a super critical role - though of course the plot does have great impact on the couple. The 2nd ML (who [SPOILER] also turned out to be one of the villains) was SOOO irritating I hated him with every fibre of my being. He was absolutely horrid and I never, not even once, felt sorry for him. As for the side characters, I did like the 2 side couples, but I wasn't really invested in their stories. They were fun to watch but I felt little emotion for them. As far as side characters go, I do think the ones in this show are very much likeable, but because the main focus of the show was the main couple, the side characters and side couples were not fleshed out or developed super well. That didn't bother me, though, because watching the main couple was also my main focus while watching the show.
As for the ending... [SPOILER] Yes, it is a sad ending. Both leads end up dying, the ML before the FL, but I did find the ending the best possible ending following the ML's death. I of course wanted a happy ending, I wanted them to overthrow the godforsaken corrupt rule in the palace and get married and live happily ever after, but alas that didn't happen. Yet, the ending was so beautiful I couldn't even complain even amidst my absolute breakdown. After the ML's death (or more so, tortured murder?), the FL chooses her own way of rebellion by committing suicide while donned in her wedding dress, with her last words being "Zhou Sheng Chen, I'm coming to marry you". That, to me, was the best ending they could've gotten following his death. I cried so much watching this show I actually got a headache afterwards... but every tear was worth it. I usually hate sad endings and avoid them no matter what but I made an exception for this one because I heard so many reviews raving about it, and I am so so glad I gave this show a shot because it is truly so good. If you cannot deal with sad endings, I honestly would still recommend this show because the journey to the end is truly so so gratifying and touching; it is equal parts heartwarming and heartwrenching. Also - there is a sequel to this show, called "Forever and Ever", and it is the reincarnation of the ML and FL in a modern cdrama. There are elements of this show in Forever and Ever, with the FL getting flashes of memories but not being able to remember exactly her past life (the ML is clueless to this). This is because of China's censorship laws of course, because in the novel that these shows were based on, the FL did have her memories of her past life (aka this life) in the next life (aka in Forever and Ever). Forever and Ever is really cute too because it is meant to heal the viewer after the tragedy that befell the leads in this show, and the references and callbacks to this show really make you feel so anguished. However, I would not recommend that you watch Forever and Ever before/without watching this show, because it can be pretty dry/boring and confusing without the knowledge from this show because the sequel's main purpose is to heal the viewers and give the leads the happy ending that they deserve but didn't get to live out in this life.
This show did a great job at foreshadowing and giving small subtle details throughout the show, and that heightens its rewatch value too as the 2nd watch will allow you to pick up new things that you might not have noticed the first time around. This show also has wonderful cinematography and many scenes were very beautifully crafted, with amazing costuming and styling as well, the costumes really elevated the characters' roles and personalities and just overall aura/vibe. Flashback sequences were also done very well that just caused more tears to break free... the storytelling in this show was truly beautiful. Watching the leads fall in love with each other slowly was so touching, and the actors did so good bringing this emotion to life. Forbidden love with the shifu/disciple trope is such a painful one but it is also so aching to see, the yearning, the holding back, it’s all just so wow. The actors did a stunning job of showing their love and devotion through action and longing gazes and other subtle actions instead of through their words or big declarations of love. It’s the little things that truly add up and cause a greater impact on your heart. This is truly one of the most beautiful and tender and pure love stories I have seen throughout cdrama history.
If you're looking for a well-developed, well-told love story, with both the ML and FL being intelligent and powerful, this show is perfect for you. I really do recommend that you give it a watch - it might start off pretty dry and boring, but make it past the first few episodes and once the ML and FL meet, the love story starts picking up. I was honestly pretty underwhelmed watching the first couple of episodes because this drama is more of a slower-paced one, but I grew to become so incredibly invested. Personally, episodes 9-14 were the sweetest and fluffiest for me. And the tender moments in episode 12 alone made the entire show worth watching.
This is my favourite show of Bailu's and also of Allen Ren's. I would also recommend Till The End of The Moon for Bailu's badass side, as well as Moonlight Mystique.
This show is worth the watch. It is worth the sad ending. It is worth the tears. It is a love story that will change your life, honestly, there will be a persistent gaping in your heart after watching this show, but it is so beautiful that I do not mind it being there forever. It truly has changed something in me and I appreciate it so much.
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Excellent
Very well done, god acting. Keeps the attention fix. Highly recommended by the stop the story at ep 38 and leave the audience in suspense, same as the "joy of life" not cool for the fans............................................................................................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................ . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. . . . . . . .. . ............ . . . . . . . . . . . .......
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Perfect lovestory and kinship..
I don't understand why people underrate this series..It's perfect in everyway it could be...
Hats off to the one who wrote this story line and also for the actors and directors who showed us this story in the perfect manners... I couldn't hold my tears and feelings......
Tears got overflowed at the last two episode..
Allen ren and Bai lu done an amazing job.. I loved all the people of the western states and subordinates of Jr. Prince of Nanchan....
I couldn't see any flaws in the story and their acting.. Couldn't be anymore perfect than this... Must Watch Again...
Am sorry for the people who skipped this series.. You guys missed the amazing journey...
Let me watch the sequel of this series now.... Adios Amigos....
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This review may contain spoilers
Heart/break
A tragic romance story~ no kiss scene
~ no direct confession, subtle through their eyes
- the tension/chem between main leads was so sweet it made you want them to hold each other and just not let go.
- although don't understand how the some generals did not see it, that CSY had to say it herself
~ injustice to both
- he fought so many wars, i don't understand how he rested easy without suspecting guangling and the gang
- oh the way he was tortured and he didn't fight
~ first time no misunderstandings between main leads
~ never mind that it was not a happy ending
- but I didn't like the time skip to decades later without revenge though who to get revenge on anyways?
- jin rong was killed too easily, yang shao, guangling, the empress, those ministers
Signing off at 2:34am.
p.s. i never rewatch a drama.
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Want to watch sad drama for this year?
I have already watch this drama, most of all I really like all about this drama. From the cast, the plot, the costume and most importantly is about the emotions and the message that they want audience to get. I can't move on from this drama and always think the sad scene. For me this drama is very excellent and I got the value from it. I suggest this drama can make all the audience feel heartbroken when watch all the episodes from this drama. I can said that I really like drama that have friendship between all the cast. I would like to highlight what I get from this drama. Friendship, loyalty, promise and the most important value is trust.Was this review helpful to you?
This is phenomenal!
Watch this drama!!! Beautifully created. Every part is so poetic. The relatively fewer episodes lead to better pacing compared to longer dramas that inevitably lead to dragging in the middle. The acting was superb! Bai Lu, Allen Ren and all the supporting characters did justice to this. Bai Lu especially deserves more recognition and projects! The cinematography, costume and music are just plain beautiful!!! I cried like crazy but it was worth it. The story, although a common theme in ancient drama, is beautifully presented. It was so realistic compared to other dramas that each episodes just makes you feel for all the characters. It was so believable that you feel happy, excited, sad, mournful, regretful and heartbroken with them. It's been a long time since I appreciated a drama in all aspects. Some drama, whether modern or ancient, I enjoyed but I still had some big criticism in some areas. However, this one is a masterpiece!!! I know some will be hesitant or might not actually appreciate this because of the genre, but it is definitely worth a try!P.S. Even if you already know the ending from the spoilers, try not to skip to watch the last few episode. Let the build up of emotions happen and you will appreciate the ending more. :)
I will try to write a more detailed review when I am less busy, but this sums up my feelings about this! This is my first time writing a review actually but I wanted to help encourage people to watch this.
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Drama with two different timelines
This is the first time i watch the 2 season drama with different timeline. Usually just people from modern time travel to ancient time or vice versa, not completly 2 different timelines.Bai lu in here so gracefully, we can really sense her as noble lady. But I a little bit not accustomed to bai lu & allen ren voice in here, so different with their usual / real voice.
My heart really2 hurt to see the love story between Zhou Sheng Chen (SC) & Cui Shi Yi (SY). We know for sure they love each other. But because the stubbornness of SC they can't be together. Ironically i just remember what Lu Si Cheng from Falling Into Your Smile said when he confess his feeling, the main thing is what the use of principle if that make him lose the girl that he love.
This is the first time i really relucant to see the ending because of the sadness & heart broken scene, & this is also the first time we know for sure the ending will gonna be heart broken scene. That's why i have to reduce the point here :(. But fortunatelly they promise us a happy ending in the second season, forever & ever (F&E) & really2 thankfully we don't need to wait for F&E to be air & for us to watch.
Bai lu & Aleen ren really do a very good job here. We can really feel their feeling. We happy & sad & heart broken together with them. Can't wait to watch F&E :)
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