A Dream within a Dream

Dropped. And I Regret Ever Starting

I gave this drama way more chances than it deserved. It’s still ongoing, but I’m officially done — dropped it with zero plans to ever go back.

From the start, the premise had potential: dreams within dreams, layered realities, hidden truths. Sounds deep, right? But instead of exploring anything meaningful, it just spiraled into a confusing, self-indulgent mess. Every episode feels like waking up from a dream only to land in another one that makes even less sense.

You’d think a dream-chained narrative would build intrigue, but all it did was bury the story under mountains of symbolism and half-hearted twists. Characters change personalities with no explanation — or maybe it's just another dream? I don’t even know anymore. It’s exhausting.

I kept hoping the next episode would bring clarity, or at least a reason to care. Instead, I got more cryptic dialogue, glacial pacing, and artsy shots that try way too hard to be profound. It’s like the writers are making it up as they go, hiding behind “it’s a dream” to avoid actual storytelling.

Honestly, I’m not even angry — just disappointed. This drama had something, but it lost itself in its own fog. I don't care how it ends, because it already lost me.

Verdict: A pretentious loop of nothing. Save yourself the time.

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Liu Yuning is off the charts

I finished this drama a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to digest everything before I submitted one.

First of all - to all those haters who accused LYN of riding on the coattails of his co-leads, and saying he’s too ugly for costume dramas - you are so wrong and this drama not only proves how wrong you are but shows your inability to observe and make correct observations. LYN is a force to be reconned with and his ability in this drama to play the roles of basically 4 people (NF tge actor, NH the bad version, NH the good version and LSL) proves he is not riding anyone’s success. He is riding that wave because of his dedication to doing a job and doing it well.

With that said, I think that every cast member did an excellent job. From villains to innocent bystanders, every role was well executed.

The scenery was stunning. Costumes were beautiful.
The OSTs were perfect and well chosen. There were characters to love, characters to hate and pity, those who annoyed you half to death until the very end (FL 😂), those you rooted for and those who broke your heart.

The court politics were just frustrating. And the only place this drama fell short for me was the instant flip the emporer did in accepting the son he despised and abused for 10 years. That much hate for that long doesn’t dissipate overnight. It just felt rushed and disingenuous.

The ending was a little cheesey, but after enduring all the emotional rollercoasters and misunderstandings, and the desire to slap the FL until she shut up and let the ML talk, it wasn’t so bad.

If you’re hesitating to watch this because of any of the negative comments or reviews, do yourself a favor and watch it. The story will keep you guessing and the characters will hit all the emotional buttons. It’s very very good.

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Regret watching such a biased script

What I don't like about the story is the approach of everyone, including casts and audience, towards Chu Gui Hong. In the original script, Nan Heng was a villain, he used everyone, killed many and yet won in the end. When the script was changed, he was still a villain. He stole the sword of Chu Gui Hong to learn weapon forging, planned to assassinate Chu Gui Hong, planned to kill FL. plotted his own assassination and blamed Chu Gui Hong and yet succeeded in gaining the sympathy of FL as well as the public. Yes, he softened towards FL and her family, towards his own people but not even a bit towards Chu Gui Hong. And yet in the end, Chu Gui Hong was humiliated and forced to commit suicide. Oh please, how can the script and the audience be so baised! Can't you see it was FL and ML who ruined Chu Gui Hong but they didn't realize it and the audience didn't realize it either. I regret watching this drama. Won't repeat such a mistake again.

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Beautiful Drama

Everything about this drama is so lovely but exhausted since the couple is restless mentally and physically. I even thought not to watch after trailer but made till the end. Already watched again and again but never get bored and even feel hesitated to say goodbye to the characters. Hope Meng and Heng are living in their world happily with load of love for each other. Some are saying that Meng is really ruthless and not worth to be loved by Heng though, I feels that Meng has every righst to behave in this way after reading the script and experiencing Heng's attempt to kill her so many times. I think audience missed the point that Heng stopped to kill Meng because he cannot kill her. Meng have such a lovely character where she dare to love, dare to protect and dare to stand in front of the person she loved. Even we fall for it, leave Heng alone when he witnessed Meng tried to worry and protect at her all costs when he's in another his character. What Heng's feeling and mistreated by other is unseen for Meng except for Heng, himself and audience. Meng even caught him with her sister in confusing situation where all women cannot tolerate. So Meng has got every reason to get angry with Heng and hate him to the bone where to the point she hurt him with ruthless words. Even for Shang Kwang Hae, if it's not for Meng who told harsh words to Heng to face the truth, Heng is trying to sacrifice him for his own safe and his uncle. Even if Heng manage to save Shang Kwang Hae, he has to live in the dark with gods of nights. But, whenever she thinks and feels that Heng is in dangerous situation, Meng never hesitated to fight for him, to protect him and to stand beside him. Actually, Meng loved Heng very very much. After all, we all are trapped in our own thoughts and feelings until we try to open our mind and see through everything happening around us. I must say this is the most excited movie I watched till now giving all the feelings of love, hate, trust, anger, misunderstanding, sad, forgiveness and happiness between lovers, parents, friends and ourselves. I guess screenwriter also understands audience really well giving all the messages by composing in very beautiful way even giving us very satisfying ending. OST and Costumes are also killing parts in this drama. Everything was created so beautifully not only for lead couple, but also for second couples and others character in details. The stitching is really impressive and elegant on their brocades, lace and fur robes.. Watching this drama keep me really busy as I still need to admire their clothes while looking at the characters and listen their words, the most I love and adore is hair accessories of Meng, Ting, Queen Mother, Song Mistress and of course male leads as well.

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Hooked, Dropped, and Hooked Again

This drama had me hooked at first with its light humor. I was laughing and enjoying myself all the way until the early double-digit episodes. Then… it got kinda flat. I skipped a bunch of episodes and jumped back in at episode 28, and wow… from there until the end, the story really picked up. Didn’t skip a single scene after that! Just wish they didn’t wait that long to give us the good stuff.

The female lead started off smart and witty, but somewhere in the middle she suddenly couldn’t see the most obvious things. Thankfully, near the end she redeemed herself and showed her brains again.

Now… Liu Yu Ning. I didn’t know him before, but from episode one, I was sold. His acting was so good, even with a mask on most of the time, his eyes did all the work and nailed every scene.

Least favorite thing? The writer character. Super annoying, but honestly didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. The ending made up for it though.

Overall: fun, light, and entertaining. Perfect when you just want something easy to watch.

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A comedy worth its name

So to start, I want to say, do not take this one seriously. At least in the beginning, it is very clear that this is a comedy and the show doesn't even take itself seriously initially. But it is hilarious. I mean I probably missed a lot of the easter eggs, but the ones I caught, referencing other shows, had me cackling. It's essentially a commentary on all these other popular dramas, and what sells with the audience.

Eventually, the show does get a bit more serious, and the vibe becomes less comedy and more drama, but I still enjoyed it because by then, I was fully invested in the characters.

Story:
The story surrounds the lead actress of the FL in a cringy/bad drama series. After reading the screenplay pages, she gets thrown into the story, and quickly determines that to navigate and survive in the story where her character is murdered and mutilated by the ML, that she needs to either marry the SML and/or kill the ML.

This unfortunately is very hard to do as she can't completely defy the story line, and she loses her free will in critical moments. But she's not the only one. The ML also realizes that he can't control himself around her, and believes she put some sort of spell on him, making him follow one of the main cardinal rules in the show : "The ML must always save the FML when she's in danger." He really puts himself through it as he tries multiple ways to kill her to free himself from the 'spell'.

Enter ML's alter ego LSL, which everyone in the audience knew was the ML except FML was oblivious, forgetting the one cardinal rule of dramas is that if there's a cool mysterious bada** character with a secret army and a mask, he's probably the ML in disguise. He saves her from his own assassination attempt, and quickly earns FML's trust. And in doing so, also her wish to hire him/cooperate with him to assassinate the ML. It's hilarious. One of my biggest regrets is that the alter ego LSL doesn't appear again after the reveal. He had strong aura in that costume.

ML despite his character origin, falls in love with FML and begins to defy the script and his fate to kill her and betray her and later mutuliate her. (Which wow what a concept screenwriter, like seriously how would that story line have been popular with an audience -- even the tsundere male leads are facing backlash these days and you just want to write this guy as a complete psycho). Eventually, as a result, it seems that all these horrible character traits of his are then passed onto the SML who needs to take up the mantle as the villain (which makes more sense, and was done quite well in my opinion).

FML and ML have a rollercoaster of a romance, mostly surrounding her inability to trust him because she knows his story line, and is biased against him, and his lack of communication about his plans, which to be honest, she wouldn't believe anyway because she doesn't trust him - which is valid, but still so frustrating.

But eventually they get it right and get together for a happy ending.

Characters/Acting:

FML: honestly she did amazing. I was very frustrated with her character sometimes, but I could still appreciate the nuances and her motivations. The actress did an amazing job portraying an actress pretending to be a character while also falling in love and caring about the people in the story. Honestly, in some scenes she gave a strong Bai Lu aura (and they do look pretty similar), and I thought she did a great job.

ML: basically. wow. Always a fan, no notes. Just watch him. I'm gonna watch it again later. Because wow. Appreciated. I think this is his best drama yet honestly.

Remaining actors and characters: the cast was great. They all did a wonderful job with their characters. I think they did great by way of chemistry and clearly appreciated their characters.

Music: beautiful, and hilarious. Those songs are so funny. Just read the lyrics to some of them, kills me.

Rewatch value: I can't decide to start another drama now and rewatch it later, or rewatch it now. It's so hard to decide. But yes 10/10 rewatch value.

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Brilliant Acting, Beautiful Music — But the Script Let Them Down

Before diving into my thoughts on the storyline itself, I have to pause and talk about the soundtrack — because wow, it deserves its own standing ovation. The music in this drama is breathtakingly touching. If you haven’t yet, take a moment to listen with English subtitles; you’ll feel every lyric sink into your heart.

A special round of applause to Liu Yu Ning. His voice? Absolutely captivating. He led several of the songs and poured so much emotion into each one. Truly, the OST wouldn’t be the same without him.

I also want to give deep appreciation to the cast. Their performances elevated this drama and brought the story to life. Li Yi Tong was actually one of the reasons I tuned in — her work in Bloody Romance left such a strong impression on me, and I was hoping for another equally powerful performance here. Unfortunately, the scriptwriting failed her. Her character was written so frustratingly that at one point, I honestly considered dropping the drama. But I stuck it out — mostly thanks to the humor sprinkled throughout and, once again, because of Liu Yu Ning’s incredible acting.

Liu Yu Ning never disappoints me. He gave his character layers — cold and sharp when needed, yet full of compassion beneath the surface. He knows how to balance strength and vulnerability so well.

On a side note, I want to mention Wang You Shuo. This poor man seems forever cast as either the “bad guy” or the one who never gets the girl. I’ve admired his acting since The Inextricable Destiny; he has this way of putting his entire heart and soul into his characters, and it deserves more recognition than he gets.

Now, for the bittersweet part: this drama could have been great. It had all the ingredients — strong actors, emotional depth, a beautiful soundtrack — but the scriptwriting dragged it down. What could’ve been a tight, powerful 20-episode masterpiece was stretched into a 40-episode endurance test. The pacing suffered, and at times it felt unnecessarily prolonged.

If the script had been sharper, my rating would’ve been much higher. Instead, I leave this drama with mixed feelings — admiration for the actors and music, but frustration at the wasted potential.

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Watched an episode and thought "I've seen all this before?" Stick around - all is not as it seems

With so many dramas to choose from, why watch A Dream Within a Dream? Maybe you watched the first couple of episodes and thought “I’ve seen all of this before”. Well stick around because all is not as it seems. Using those standard stereotypes, tropes, and iconic scenes found in other dramas as a starting point, the series gradually pushes these familiar elements in a direction that forces not only the characters but the audience to question everything. In the process, the characters grow and change in unexpected ways, the story shifts to create new situations, and those iconic scenes gain depth. The execution may not always be perfect but as the traditional layers are peeled away, this is one drama that only gets better with each episode.

Liu Yuning, no matter which of his three (wink wink) characters he is portraying, fills his scenes with a heady dose of emotion and heart. It’s no wonder Song Li Meng (the adorable Li Yi Tong) falls for every iteration of him – despite trying so hard not to! The performances of Riley Wang as Shangguan He, and second male lead turned v#*$!!, Wang You Shuo as Chu Gui Hong, also stand out. Like many of the supporting characters, they strive to become something other than the “paper people” they are written to be.

By the time I finished episode 40, I didn’t want A Dream Within a Dream to end. Fortunately, I can go back and rewatch my favorite parts or listen to the original soundtrack featuring not one but two amazing songs by OST King Liu Yuning: the opening theme, Ballad of the Long Wind, and the emotional, Paper Person!

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A Dream Within A Dream Was Amazing at First...

After watching "Prisoner of Beauty", I thought I'd have beef with Liu Yu Ning's next characters. But turns out a character is just a character and Nan Heng is now on my "Ge Ge list" (🤭).

Before we get into this, please remember that this is MY OPINION and I'm not here to hate on the actors or anybody who disagrees with me. I can be very brutal but it's all lighthearted! Also SPOILERS AHEAD so keep that in mind. This is going to be another long one so let's keep this convo fun and respectful 💕.

The Good
Nan Heng
When I watched Prisoner of Beauty, I thought I'd have a bit of a prejudice against Liu Yu Ning's next character (joke) but then I met Nan Heng and fell in love. It's meant to be guys, it really is. Liu Yu Ning is a celebrity crush now and Nan Heng was a delight. I loved the character and how he was portrayed. He was such a caring guy and also super funny. He facial expressions when he'd have to save the Yi Meng were hilarious. Amazing character and has raised my standard for men in future historical dramas.

"White Head Same Heart"
I loved how they used "White Head Same Heart"! it was so clever and I love when that happens in dramas. When the lead isn't sure about the other but then they do something that only the two of them know about. Brilliant. It reminds me of a different drama I watched where they had a special kind of knock. Either way it's adorable from an English speaker perspective and a sucker for creative romance things like that. Stuff like this is why I love romance shows and I won't lie and say those four words didn't bump the rating up a bit.

Interesting start
The first few episodes of this drama were the best. I usually watch two to three dramas at the same time (different genres though) but this one had me hooked. I couldn't even watch the others because I always wanted to watch this one. I loved when Nan Heng had to save her, I loved how she was determined to get married to Gui Hong, I loved how desperate she was to escape her fate, and when she met Mr. Li. It was so interesting to watch Mr. Li, Gui Hong, and Yi Meng plan how they were going to kill Nan Heng. I thought this was gonna become the first historical drama that I loved... until it wasn't.


The Bad
It kind of lost the plot towards the end.
After everyone found out that Nan Heng was Mr. Li, some of the plot got lost. What happened to wanting to find the weapon of forging? Why did he even really need it? I will give them credit and say that she was still desperate to change the story at the end, so that was a plus. But it did start to get slow when the story no longer forced her to do things and force Nan Heng to protect her.

I also felt like they didn't know how they wanted to end the drama so they threw in the Gui Hong plot. I mean when you think about it, how else would the show end without her going back to the present time. The story should've ended when they had the first ending. I really didn't like how it ended with everyone alive and with a happy ending. The best ending was the very first one when Shangguan He died heroically protecting Yi Ting and they had that battle. The had so many foreshadowing moments that made it seem like he was going to die that I was lowkey expecting it. But when it went back in time twice so that everyone can live, it was a bit of a letdown. It should've ended the first way and Yi Meng should've went back to the real world. The ending when the actor for Nan Heng remembered her (somehow?) could've still happened or they could've done where she either forgets and then remembers or she thinks it was all a dream. Something would've been better than her staying there forever. Or did she? the ending was kind of confusing.

The show was a bit slow.
Even though I really did enjoy this show, I felt like there were more irrelevant scenes than relevant ones. I thought the whole point in her being there was to change the story and her fate. So why did we get one iconic scene every, like, 10 episodes? Most of the stuff that happens in the drama doesn't hit the same because it was just her existing in the times. I really enjoyed the show during the first part because her changing her fate and ignoring Nan Heng was her top priority. But after the first few episodes when he's forced to protect her, she's constantly avoiding him, and they are both forced to say and do stuff they don't want to, it all becomes slow. You're left thinking "Okay, we're on episode 30 and she still hates him. Where is this going?".

Song Yi Meng Was so MEAN
I'll never get over how mean Song Yi Meng was to Nan Heng CONTANTLY during the most of the middle part in the show. At first I understood where she was coming from. He was evil, she read the script, he tried to kill her, etc. But once he continued to prove himself to be misunderstood, I still didn't understand what her problem was. He constantly showed her that he cared for her, Always protecting her and looking out for her, and clearly being a misunderstood good guy. So why was she so cruel to him despite knowing how much to script changed. He was so clearly not the same Nan Heng from the script and yet she constantly undervalued all the things he did for her. As Nan Heng and as Mr. Li.

I especially couldn't stand how often she got mad at him just before they got together. It felt like she wanted a reason to hate him. She always made sure to stab him and twist the knife.

Why Did Nan Heng even like her so much??
I'm the kind of person who NEEDS to understand a character's obsession/love for another character. If you're gonna keep pining after a girl that rips you to shreds (emotionally) every episode, I need to understand why. And I didn't. She didn't really stand out at all. What I mean is that she acted like everyone else who misunderstood and distrusted him. It was kind of confusing that he loved a girl who hated him without a mask. Maybe it would've worked out better if she talked to Mr. Li (him in a mask) about how misunderstood Nan Heng was and that she wish she could trust him and not know the future. But she hated him no matter what was going on. What causes intense love from that?

I think his obsession would've made more sense if she defended him or trusted him at least once. Instead she would literally see him crying because of her words and KEEP GOING! That one scene at night in the snow was pure torture to watch. And she did that kind of this constantly. It was annoying on both their parts. She was annoying for ripping him to shreds constantly and for him still trying to get her to love him. I wish he stopped trying and only then did she realise how much she cared/loved him. But watching him get kicked in the face and then kiss the shoes that kicked him just because they were hers became so unrealistic (considering) and overdone.

Chu Gui Hong being evil felt random
Anybody else felt like Gui Hong becoming evil felt thrown in? How did the good guy turn so evil because he found out he was a story character? That one scene when Song Yi Meng put him in his place and reminded him of all the innocent lives he was ending, was so satisfying. But it was confusing how someone who swore never to let anyone wrongly be killed and then did that very thing.

I kind of think that he had such self hatred for wrongfully hating Nan Heng this whole time and just couldn't accept that he was wrong all this time. I really liked when Yi Meng's father said "No one can wake someone who's pretending to sleep" and not only do I say that now, but it really reflected Gui Hong perfectly. He was so convinced that he was the victim and Nan Heng was to blame, that he didn't realise that he was the actualy problem. Nan Heng did steal Yi Meng. It was Gui Hong's attitude and switch up that pushed her away. It's crazy that he didn't realise that even if Nan Heng wasn't in the picture, she still wouldn't have been with him.

We got a little off topic but the point is, him doing a full one 180 and killing everybody felt like they just needed a reason to end the show. It didn't really fit and I was sad that Gui Hong's story ended like that. I was kind of hoping he'd reconnect with Nan Heng... Oh well.

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