In the theatre style of comedies of old, we have bodily gags, cross dressing, evil cackling villains, and the actors look like they will burst out laughing in every scene. It's a lot of fun for the first 10 episodes, but it drags more and more as all plot points are met with the same delivery.
The gender dynamics kept me from dropping it. The main female lead is bold, a great strategist, and is insightful into the motivations of people. The show makes valid points about the 'woman behind the man' just means that there's tons of talented women adviser and strategists out there that never get their recognition. The male lead recognizes her strengths quickly and finds them intriguing and endearing.
Is it enough? It wasn't for me, I started fastforwarding through scenes or watching out of the corner of my eye. But, to be fair to the show, this is a show that is meant to be watched as you do errands around the house, chat with your family, scroll on your phone. If that's something you need, this could be the show for you.
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Outrageously Over The Top but the fan service is giving
There's a lot of bathing scenes and General Jin Fu for some reasons really likes to go topless. And by god the kisses are hot.The story itself is actually quite interesting. I was quite invested in the beginning but now kind of looking forward for the charade to be over. It is so satisfying to see the FL being a powerful personality and doesn't hesitate to kill.
The acting is not the best and the script can be cringey. Plotholes so big they are more like plotcaves, but this show is kind of addictive. I'll be watching it till the end.
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Low Budget, High Quality
finished this one in one sitting. it was THAT GOOD. i didn't have much expectations before starting it but now i'm glad i came across this gem! historical drama with modern vibes (gender equality, unique humor, etc), AMAZING chemistry, a lot of funny and swoonworthy scenes. it was enjoyable from start to finish, it's a great choice to pick if you're looking to laugh and swoon !!some of notable things that came to mind:
- the antagonist is basically a psychopath, which is interesting to see in a history drama where usually the "villain" is motivated by politics or greed for power, in this one she's simply insane lol
- both the ML and FL are amazing as their respective characters, they represent a great king who uphold their values.
- women empowerment done right! the FL character was so badass but at the same time she can be cute and clingy when being around the ML. it shows that she's still a girl at heart who folds when it comes to the man that she loves, but will be THE Man when she's doing her role as a King/Lord.
- the ML is so down bad for the FL it was so adorable to watch
- there's a love triangle which i usually don't like but it was done right too!! and pretty lighthearted
- there's no unnecessary misunderstandings as well
give it a try and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as i did!
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It’s refreshing to see Physical comedy in a RomCom genre
My Uncanny Destiny is a surprising and fun RomCom. I have not seen many good physical comedy-drama from China, so it is refreshing to see one.My first time watching Yan Zi Xian and Zhang Yue Nan in leading roles. They both did a decent job in this drama. The supporting cast was fun too. There are quite a few kissing scenes for the main CP and two supporting CPs.
I find it enjoyable, and there are a few laughable moments. I can't wait to see how Liu Xuan Ming feels when he discovers that Ye Zhao Nan is his enemy and is a woman.
I have watched 16 episodes already and can't wait to see how it reveals in the end. The production quality is not bad either.
I am changing my rating from 7.5 to 7,0 because I did not like the last two episodes.
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hilarious, fantastic
favourite c-drama of all time. i’m still trying to fill that void now. spunky fl, brooding ml who is distant but is so in love once it happens. undeniable chemistry. Humour was really good, and didn’t feel cliche and almost killed me from suffocation. i love how it didn’t have episodes going into 40s like lots of c-dramas so it didn’t drag out which is why i’m often wary of c-dramas because i don’t know if i’ll be able to finish. i love the dynamic between the two and i usually don’t like misunderstandings drawn out but the drama did it well so it was really for comedic effect mostly, not just poorwriting meant lengthen series.Was this review helpful to you?
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It's ok
This show should really be taken with a grain of salt. It is funny and it doesn't take itself seriously. That's why it is so ridiculous.One thing that I didn't like about it was that it didn't stay consistent with the genre. It's a romantic comedy. Therefore, it should be light and upbeat. General Jin Fu's sister dying was completely unexpected and unnecessary. There should've been another way to find out that the wedding dress was poisoned without breaking out of the genre. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in Asian dramas. They often mix comedy, tragedy, and drama into a muddy mess.
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Wacky drama but with depth and great acting
I came across this drama on reddit and decided to watch after reading good reviews and knowing that Yan Zi Xian starred in this drama. I was highly entertained by this series.What I liked:
1. Ye Zhao Nan / Guan San Mei characterisation - Wow, the character had so much depth & growth. I love the contrast between San Mei and Zhao Nan but there was at least one similar trait - intelligence. I love how she is quick thinking, likeable, funny and compassionate.
2. Romance - I love how romance developed between San Mei and Liu Xuan Ming. They were hostile towards each other at first but then slowly developed friendship and later love. I also enjoyed the secondary romance in particular the assassin Tan Rang and Princess Yun Luo. There are plenty of hot kisses in this drama and not just from main couple.
3. Acting - I was impressed by acting from Zhang Yue Nan, Yu Xuan Chen and Han Yu Tong. I am familiar with Han Yu Tong because of her work in vertical shot dramas but gosh it's so fun watching her played a scheming love rival.
4. Yi Yang Jun characterisation - What a rice development for this character. I find him compelling because Yu Xuan Chen had such presence and aura, sometimes he outshined Yan Zi Xian.
5. Comedy - This drama is one of the funniest Chinese dramas that I have watched & enjoyed.
6. Supporting characters - There were many characters that I enjoyed watching in this drama e.g. The Three Stooges, General Jin Fu (damn his body was hot!), Ke Qian Yue, Yao Hu.
7. Role reversal - I like how this was showcased in the drama because we see both sides. I also enjoyed female empowerment trope in this drama.
What I disliked:
1. Princess Qi Meng / Qian Hui Rou - Great way to use Fan Wei's talent but I found the two separate individuals were very similar. I also couldn't figure out servant Bai Lu's loyalty toward Qian Hui Rou because Hui Rou's past.
2. Zhao Jin's love arc - I also didn't enjoy his love arc because it didn't seem natural.
Favourite scene
The start of the sisterhood and the kissing that follow suit
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What am I watching and why do I like it?
This is my first "short" drama. I usually go for ones with at least a 45 min run time per episode at a total of too many episodes and then I wonder why I drop half of them. Thanks to Zogitt's review, I decided to give this drama a chance. I normally do not like cheesy, over the top dramas but for some reason, this one works. Some scenes, I was laughing so hard that my family asked what the heck I was watching. The ML and FL had good chemistry and you can tell sometimes they were trying hard not to laugh while filming, that's how serious this drama is. Thought the FL played her role really well alternating between a male and female characters. I liked the messaging behind the drama in terms of gender equality.This is the drama where I discovered ML, Yan Zi Xian and I might go on a binge watch of all his dramas now. I want to believe I am not that shallow but damn, he is fine and maybe it's his kiss scenes that I appreciate. It's not boring. Like the one where he kisses the FL going up the stairs. He made it adorable and HOT at the same time!
Someone else reviewed this drama negatively and compared it to not living up to The Romance of Tiger and Rose. I love Zhao Lusi and watched TROTAR when it first came out and loved it, thought it was funny, fresh and different. However, I recently tried to rewatch it and was bored out of my mind. I don't think it's fair to compare the two dramas as they are really different. I certainly didn't regret giving this drama a try. Plus the bloopers at the end of the drama made it even more enjoyable.
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Hilarious farce with ridiculous scenarios
This is like a French Farce x Shakespeare x A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum drama with crossdressing, silly misunderstandings, and mistaken identities throughout. If you take this as a complete fantasy where people will be shoved into closets, be mistaken for dead and put into a coffin, and where the best assassin in the world falls for a princess who likes a bit of torture, you'll love the ride.I enjoyed 99.9% of it and it would be a strong rewatch for me. The show keeps a strong pace throughout, with an ensemble cast that really make each episode hilarious.
I've never seen a C-drama that had so many guys stripped down to their waist! LOL The main lead spends a LOT of time in his bathtub which isn't a bad view at all from my viewpoint. Although there are a few pursed lip kisses, the kissing scenes get better as the FL and ML spend more time together. The romance is between equals and there are some playful moments with the woman being in charge which the hero seems to be more than fine with.
The FL (Zhang Yue Nan) had a way of changing the intensity of her gaze when she was in lord-mode that was really good. Some of her standout scenes for me was when she regained her memory and sits on ML's throne telling him who she really is; when she is standing next to the ML and counsels him when the prospective bride shows up (a great moment showing the FL's game level); when she kills the first villain (bow-and-arrow scene); and multiple scenes of her working with the trio of Muxi spies who she calls father and brother.
It can be hard to pair a good male lead with a strong female character, but the ML in this show does an excellent job. I liked that he had a touch of vanity paired with his arrogance and none of the cold cruelty. The dialogue teasing between the two of them was easy to enjoy, and you could see them being not only lovers but good friends.
The story itself doesn't surprise but it's all played for laughs. There is some bathroom-potty humor which I usually dislike but this time it made me laugh as it was so ridiculous. A slight touch of noble idiocy at the end which gets quickly resolved.
What I didn't like: at the end there is a notice that "no animals were harmed" but let's face it - the villain picked up a rabbit by its ears (!) and a rat by its back (!). I honestly don't see how these scenes could have been filmed without some rough handling. Well, at least I didn't have to watch horses going down with a trip wire.
I also didn't like the ? mark ending with the implication that the villain would rise again, but that can be easily ignored.
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A tale of two city lords.
!! Content/trigger warning for mention of sexual assault: At the end of episode 17 and beginning of episode 18, there is an attempted sexual assault on one of the female characters, which fails, and the perpetrator is punished in a later episode.I thought this was excellent. I went in not really knowing what to expect and had meant to just watch the first episode to decide whether or not I liked it, as I usually do, and got hooked immediately.
No huge plot holes and no inane story or character slips that didn't make any sense, which is usually the main issue in Chinese dramas. The pacing was good, and the length of the episodes and series length felt appropriate and just about right, and nothing really felt like filler. Some things do happen very quickly, like the two leads falling in love, and there are some things that go against usual historical drama rule convention without much consequence, like there being no objection from people around the male lead for wanting to marry a non-noble, but for the most part these are peripheral enough to the main story and fleshing them out would only have dragged out the story for no reason other than to add unnecessary drama, so I don't really have complaints about that. Normally these omissions would annoy me very much, but in this case they didn't really bother me other than the occasional note of 'Huh, why is this random bucket-scrubbing maid allowed to just walk around the inner city/palace and command so much way-giving? Oh well *shrug*', which I attribute to the fact that it's a low-stakes rom-com that doesn't take itself too seriously with a 30min-per-episode runtime; and the level of (in)formality fits the format. The one thing that did trip me up the most was when, near the end, a character makes a pivotal choice to defend their city against another city's army based on their identity as a Muxi citizen specifically, and this is talked about by the female lead as 'sometimes your cultural/national identity is more important than your life', but shortly afterwards the three cities are then united into one, which is sort-of-but-not-really painted as the FL's goal to some extent as well. That whole 'sometimes people defend their identity before their own life and we call them heroes' speech was a bit 'Huh, propagandy' to me, but perhaps that was the trade-off with the censors or something to keep all the kissing scenes in, who knows.
I thought the comedy in this was great, including the 'What!' reaction sounds and occasional use of music that were English songs to emphasise certain moments. The first time I heard an English song during a Moment I had to check that I wasn't watching it on YouTube and they had replaced the music for copyright reasons, but I was watching it on a random Chinese streaming site, so that seems unlikely. Maybe it still was an insert, but either way, that was my experience of watching the drama and I found it very funny. I found this drama very funny and almost Douyin skit-esque in its humour. There was a lot of toilet humour, including someone falling in love because someone gave them clean toilet paper, and also a lot of fart jokes, which sort of really ties in with the Douyin-esque vibe of 'What!' reaction sounds and musical emphasis moments. The animal roaring sounds were a bit silly at times, and felt like perhaps were used a bit too often with the FL, but overall sort of fell into the general sense of comedy.
The kissing scenes are almost all early on and I have to say, they are very active kissing scenes with locked lips and not just faces pressed together, which I really liked about this drama. They actually like each other! They're actually kissing each other and kissing back! I usually look away during kissing scenes but in the case of this drama I actually really enjoyed them because they seemed genuine - not overdone so they were tearing at each other's clothes, but also not uncomfortably close-up of just the lips that sort of sensationalise it like so many other dramas tend to do. I also really liked the romance between the two leads - it's established early on that they're equals, and the FL very actively stabilises and backs up the ML in his role as city lord. There are no nonsense misunderstandings and the ML is very supportive of the FL throughout, especially once he realises that he really does like her. The one main argument that they have is resolved almost immediately - one might even argue too quickly - but even that is set-up beforehand with a lot of 'what-if ... would you forgive me?' probing and prepping, as well as the ML repeatedly noting that he likes the FL for her.
The romance between Yun Luo and Tan Rang was a little more '???' for me, but again, I wasn't particularly annoyed by it, although I did think Tan Rang was a bit too forgiving (I personally am unsure if I would be so okay with some random tricking me and doing the things Yun Luo does to him with the consequences they result in, even if the last consequence wasn't on purpose). Zhao Jing also had a bit of a weird situation happen for him with Zhi Lan and then Ke Qian Yue, and I do feel bad for him; it was very much not the usual clean-cut pairing up that normally happens, though I did also appreciate the 'random non-lead is a ladykiller' vibe that it gave off. I really didn't expect Zhi Lan's story to go in that direction and didn't quite believe it, and kept expecting that there would be some kind of 'Surprise! We tricked you' moment, but apparently they were serious about it, which I also found unusual given the genre - I kept thinking 'Ah, it's a rom-com, that won't happen', but apparently not. It was a shame, and she and Zhao Jing deserved better.
The second male lead was one of the nicest second male leads I've ever seen, and knows when to step back and when to exit. I never felt like he pushes the FL, although he does make it clear he likes her and tries for his chance. He also develops a friendship with the ML despite their love rivalry and is never bitter or entitled towards anything, including when dealing with Princesses Qi Meng and Hui Rou and their machinations. One of the most good-natured SMLs I've seen in a drama, and was supportive all the way, even solving multiple problems for the leads.
I've never seen either the female or male leads in anything before and was completely new to them, but I really liked them both, as I did most of the actors in this drama. The female lead especially is not your average FL-dressed-in-men's-clothes, but actually felt believable as somebody who grew up disguised as a boy. Even dressed in women's clothes she doesn't lose any of her ferocity, and she is always believable in each moment in her capacity of the City Lord of Muxi. When she is dressed as the 'male' Ye Zhao Nan her manner and demeanor genuinely swaggers, and even her voice seems to be deeper. Count me impressed. The ML on the other hand does a great cold and serious City Lord - and then you see him warm up and smile. Towards the end it was ridiculous, I was pausing the screen and yelling because he is So Pretty when he smiles. Who is this guy??? And why haven't I seen him in other things before??? He's also really good at the comedy and very quick with it too, especially with his facial expressions.
The other actors are also nothing to sniff at. From Zhao Jing to Lao Guan, the supporting cast also uniformly did a great job. The only one I found something to pick at about was Princess Qi Meng/Hui Rou, who seemed a little over-acted, especially with the sudden laughing, although I understand that it was meant to convey that she was unhinged.
The opening theme was light and cute, even catchy, and the ending theme was sweet. While the music didn't really stand out to me during the show, upon listening properly to the OST (I tend to skip the opening and endings of dramas when bingeing...), it is actually very nice. Okay, actually now I'm listening to the full version of the ending theme and the rest of the OST, honestly they could have made this drama a serious romance (which is not to say that the romance is a joke in this show but like. A Serious Romance with much less comedy) just based on the strengths of the ballads alone. I think I'm going to keep this OST to just pull out and listen to every now and then, actually.
I rate this very rewatchable, because I already want to rewatch it right now immediately. I binged this in less than two days, and the episode and series length adds to how easy it is to rewatch.
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A drama light on depth but heavy on queen energy
Perhaps if I hadn’t watched Mr. Queen, I would have given this drama a higher rating. I’m not saying these dramas are related, but this drama gave me the same vibe. Both dramas feature strong female leads as rulers of their kingdom, both had gender-bending or swapping as themes, and both have comedic elements. Basically, this drama is like a cross between Mr. Queen and The King’s Affection.While I was impressed with both aforementioned titles, My Uncanny Destiny perhaps has a less intricate plot and less developed secondary characters. I would say that though the comedic timing of the show is on–point, I believe this is due to the lead actress’ delivery and performance. Zhang Yue Nan’s solid portrayal as the formidable Lord of Mu Xi City is very convincing. This made me enjoy the character more, especially when she switches between Zhao Nan and San Mei, and yet still displays that same wiliness in her demeanor. The amazing dialogue helps a lot too. It looked like the writers sure invested a lot of thought into the FL’s lines that they perhaps forgot everyone else’s.
Although adorable, Yan Zi Xian was disserviced by a FL so strong, that his character paled in comparison. Though he tries to hold on his own, he could not catch up. The rest of the characters were not as memorable as Qi Meng/Hui Rou, and it is for the wrong reasons. She’s just like a nasty bug that wouldn’t die, no matter how many times you try to kill it.
Otherwise, if you have time for some light drama, this may be a decent show to watch.
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good visuals, inconsistent whatever ahh scripwriting
the good: the setting, the clothing, the chemistrythe bad: the depth, the plot, the depth of the plot
> the screenplay gets more and more template and predictable towards the end;
> ends up indesicive between being a cold-toned or happy go lucky show;
> makes me feel like they did the characters injustice because of inconsistency;
> could've made better a story anyway with the same message they wanted to convey (gender equality)
> please stop making relationships on the foundation of nothing
> please stop flashbacking
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