The Rise of Ning

The underdogs became the winners

Family dynamics and politics were nicely depicted in this drama. The story was interesting. On two fronts, both the lead characters had cases on their hands to investigate and uncover.

As a child, Luo Yi Ning who lost her mother was sent away from home to the countryside villa after being accused of causing the miscarriage of her step-mother. When she returned years later, she was determined to prove her innocence. Back home, she began to suspect that her mother was poisoned. If it was not her stepmother, then who did it and why?

This episode on Yi Ning's eviction from the Luo family because of her stepmother was similar to that of the Double. Who plagiarised who - I could not ascertain which story was published earlier. The Double was aired earlier; so the natural conclusion was this drama plagarised.

Her half brother, Luo Shen Yuan was not what he appeared to be - the uneducated and unfavoured son. He was secretly the student of a mandarin who was accused of corruption and was executed. Very intelligent and conniving, he lay low while investigating his tutor's case as it might involve someone very powerful.

ShenYuan was a maverick and schemed his way to solve his tutor's case. He was so smart that he lay all the traps to catch the evil lord and stole the necessary evidence to nail him. What appeared to be a bad turn of events was actually a scheme of his. In this regard, it was a little unconvincing for such a young lad to be able to solely do all these without an older, more experience adult as advisor or helper.

When Yi Ning was repeatedly schemed against by her stepmother and half sister, he stepped in to help her. While trying to find a cure for her ill-health, he discovered that she might not be a child of the Luo's family and started to develop romantic feelings for her. The investigation of his tutor's case brought him in direct conflict with Marquis Lu JiaXue, YiNing's former love interest who now became his love and political rival.

Also I actually did not feel there was much chemistry between Ren Min (Yi Ning) and Zhang Wan Yi (Shen Yuan). The romantic scenes between them felt quite bland and obviously just a show. Zhang Wan Yi was the male lead in Lost You Forever. Comparing his chemistry with Ren Min and Yang Zi, the chemistry with Yang Zi was a lot more convincing.

Additionally, they chose the wrong voice for Ren Min. The childish pitchy voice did not help in building the character. She acted in the drama, the Longest Promise, with Xiao Zhan and the drama was a disappointment. I think she should stay on for another 2-3 years as a second lead to outstanding lead actresses to learn from them before taking up lead acting roles.

I found myself feeling sorry for the second lead. He did love Yi Ning truly although in an obsessive manner. Would have been better if a different ending had been crafted for him. At some parts, it looked like MingZhu was interested in him. Yet, the screenwriter did not capitalise on this further.

The last four episodes were totally unnecessary as they seemed to be added to drag the drama on. The drama could easily have ended at episode 36 and would have fared better in my rating. The extra four episodes would have been better used to craft a different ending for the second lead.

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Rise of Ning worth watching and rewatching

First of all I love both male and female lead. Ren Min is supposed to sound like that plus her voice is authentic and Zhang Wanyi voice is just beautiful to listen to.

Acting is excellent and all roles has their roles right. The storyline and plot is perfect in pace. Not too tense and not too slow with the right build and unfolding just right. More than ever when a conflict occurs it’s get resolved and not dragged on. They are creative with adapting the novel piece of reincarnation and creating a romantic story here.

I love dramas for their plots and lessons. Most of all besides protecting your loved ones, one key message is about how women are viewed and what they are allowed to do in an empowering way which I won’t spoil. Remember China censors certain things and by the fact this was allowed says a lot about the movement of women and men being viewed more equally. In addition, the costume design are hand embroidered and beautiful. Ren Min is my favorite and her crying scenes always bring about great emotions. Both leads know how to use their eyes and voice to elicit emphasis where necessary.

The musical score is beautiful. The scenary on many levels is great also. I’m waiting for every episode to come out and rewatching what I want. You will want to watch this!

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An Inspiration Not An Adaption

I have read the novel, before attempting to watch this drama, so this would contain novel spoilers. You have been warned!

The overarching story premise was very well written, the flow and the progress, while seemingly slow was actually progressing and in a way to make sense. We are introduced to the FL (Luo YiNing) and ML (Luo Shen Yuan), who are siblings born in scholar family during historical times. FL was born as the Legitimate Child, but wasn't liked by her father and was sent away when she was young returning to the family after 10 years has passed, which was the beginning of the story. While ML was an illegitimate child who wasn't even recorded in the genetically book and was never recognized as part of the family scorned by his father, he didn't even have the right to learn how to read from a teacher. Both leads who weren't raised surrounded by love, began to rely on each other, becoming each others pillar.

ML (Luo Shen Yuan) was a diamond in the rough, a prodigy, he was extremely smart, had his own business that was thriving, and was strong martial arts skill. However, he had to do everything under another identity, because he was an illegitimate child, that was not recognized by his family. His own father wouldn't even let him learn how to read, and he self taught himself, with little guidance from a teacher. The most impressive part of this story was not the romance, but the character development of ML and FL, and for ML while he was prodigy, he lacked love/compassionate. He learned to be righteous from his teacher and fellow classmates, but never really had anyone truly care for him. Which FL teaches him, tries to give him, telling him he's not alone and he doesn't have to do everything himself. Which I liked this premise, because novel to FL was obsession (not a very good one), novel ML and drama ML were both born to be politicians, but novel was much more cunning and ruthless. He didn't really care for anyone, but FL, which to be honest, all the characters written in Luo Family was quite dumb or "not very nice people". Nobody in the Luo family really ever treated ML like family, while in the drama, we see how he is accepted. The scene when gets written in to the genealogy book, perfectly filmed, show the nervousness and the moment to be remembered.

What makes this character even more memorable was the actor Zhang Wan Yi, the slight expressions, movements, and the tension he creates in the room OMG, just such an impressive actor. He perfectly acted how ML slowly falls in love with FL, and his slight changes from how his surroundings changes, like when he goes from being an illegitimate child to Legitimate child, become FL's actual brother on paper. He changed the way he walked, and the air around him goes from being nobody to a confident noble scholar.


I also love the portrayal of FL in the drama compared to the novel, the more I read the novel the more annoyed with FL I got. This drama seems to have taken the criticism towards the novel and rewritten FL setting, and they did so in an impressive way, Lets make one thing clear, novel FL was reincarnated after dying at 17 and then spent 20 years as a soul in a hairpin so she knew of some future event. She knew ML would become a prime minister and did everything to treat him well, but she reincarnated into a 7 years old after 7 years she died. She was married before she died and had a husband which is SML, that was well alive in his late 20s. In the drama, instead of starting FL as a 7 years, because no way is anyone watching a grooming process and pedophile happening, they started her off in her teens who came back after being sent away for 10 years. The good thing the production did was avoid mentioning age at all times, which the novel kept mention (aka shes 10, 12, 14 - the main story ended at 15 and she had kids....). During those 10 years she was sent away, she so happen to come in contact with SML, who was blinded because of an injury, and they become close. SML falls in love with her and he was set on marrying her, but some situation happened that led to FL being badly injured believing that SML tried to kill her. SML develops an obsession with her, while FL has moved on and matured from that experience, which was portrayed very well, she was firm toward SML, not even letting the slightest action to hint towards anything except for her personal hobbies/habits. Novel FL will piss you off, supposedly over him, but some how always thinks of him, remember what he likes, and what he did, and the past, what even gave her away was that she remembered that SML went gambling. Drama FL was mature and intelligent, she grew up in a house with only a few maids and developed an independence by herself. So when she came back to the family, she started her own business, navigated herself away from trouble. Her only weak point, was that she was still too soft towards her opponents, and ML will take care of that, but overall she didn't really need saving from ML and there were even instants of her saving ML. The actress really portrayed YiNing as her natural self of caring and her love/care to ML was what gave comfort to ML, that he would even sharing his deepest secrets with. The relationship was mutual and balanced, with no problems at all, even when FL was hiding her assiocation with SML, and he was deeply jealous, he never forced her to say anything.


This is a slow burn drama, for more than half the episodes FL still didn't know ML was not her biological sibling, but what I appreciated was the character growth of the characters. Like how Luo Yi Xiu and Lin Mao (i kind of skipped alot of their story), growth from each other company and to be honest while Luo Yi Yu didn't have much screen time, her character growth was probably the most interesting one. Luo Yi Yu was raised to be a proud scholar girl by her mother madam chen, and madam chen always wanted better for her kids, so her strictness towards her children was suffocating especially to Luo Yi Xiu and Luo Shan Yuan. While YiYu was her mothers perfect child, she initially was slightly arrogant, but she wasn't a bad person when Liu Ming proposed, she initially didn't like him because his family wasn't exactly known/wealthy, nor was he good looking, and he didn't score on the yearly examination. However when encountering a family crisis, he was the only one that didn't ostracize her and she finally understood, to live a good a life you don't need all the other worldly things, just having someone there to stay by you was the most important. I do with they expanded more on how FL finds out shes in love with him, because they kinda of wrapped up everything pretty quickly near the end. The pacing wasn't bad, I wish there was more.

Somethings I do wish they kept in the drama was novel Lin Mao's character setting, they revamped him to a guy whos terrible at studying and in to medicine. However novel Lin Mao was a very interesting character, he was carefree and does pretty crazy thing like he caused an explosion because he was trying to create an elixir XD. Lin Mao characters was smart, but he was very eccentric and liked to do things by impulse. I also wanted them to keep ML confidence, novel ML was confident in everything he did, no matter what trouble FL caused, he always had a back up plan, while drama ML did portray him as smart, they took out the absolute confidence he had in his plans, which to be fair make sense with the character setting they set for him as he does fail.

I highly recommend this drama, do not even bother reading the novel, you will not like it. The character growth and the story flow, is the quality point and you won't get bored of the interactions between characters. There is no misunderstandings and if your a fan of mutual support relationships, this is for you. FL and ML supported each other through out the novel and they never overshadow each other. They both have their expertises and their own strong qualities, and how these qualities come together to support each other is most fascinating to watch.

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One of my favorite series in 2024

The lead actor and lead actress have the best chemistry to each other. Their faces look very similar. They acted their roles well, neither overacting nor underacting. They express emotions and used their eyes to reveal their feelings well. The family story has both problems and warmth. One of the characters that impressed me the most is the stepmother who loves and protects the lead actress as if she were her own mother. It is a love that does not care about bloodline. She also shows kindness to the lead actor and other stepchildren. The story also shows about social values ​​​​of the imperial examination for being governmental official. The series teaches us that the parents should let the children choose the life they want, whether it is about lifestyle, work, love and their married life. In conclusion, I think I do not regret for watching this series.

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Interesting

This drama is on my plan to watch list for a long time . Finally this is released. I am so happy that Chinese dramas are now progressing. First episodes reminds me of The Double.

POSITIVE- The visuals are excellent with colorful costumes . I really liked the cinematography. Chinese dramas are seriously eye candy for you . When I was watching this series I was afraid because the director is from Fox Spirit matchmaker so you know . I have watched the ML's acting before so I know how professional he is . The storyline is also so good . I really like family politics types of dramas. Some characters of this drama are positive. The grandma is such a sweetheart. Although at first I thought this drama is about siblings love but thank God this is not . Both the ML and FL are so handsome and beautiful.


NEGATIVE- I sometimes felf bore in some scenes. The storyline is kinda messy . And the most annoying thing is the FL's voice, I have seen her acting before so I know about it but this time really I am so disappointed by her . Her character is strong and wise but feeling like the actress is not fit in romance dramas. The chemistry between the ML and FL is kinda weak . The actress who played the sister role is professional but the character which she played is annoying.

OVERALL- A average drama . If you are not a picky watcher then you can give it try . But the visuals are really so good . Sometimes you will feel bore also sometimes good .

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Good pacing and acting, nicely-written family stories but disappointing romance

“The Rise of Ning” does have some resemblance to " The Story of Ming Lan” with a focus on family life, a smart female lead, a good-hearted and doting grandmother and in-fighting between the wives. However, it’s a much shorter and lighter version, and might be easier for new C-drama watchers to enjoy.

Plot & Characters:
I really enjoy the happenings at the Luo Household. The pacing of the drama is good with stories revolving around each child, their struggles to be the favorite and the star of the family, and the scheming between the wives. Nothing was actually too crazy and over-the-top. The ‘evil’ women aren’t really that bad, compared to those in other dramas I’ve seen. Thus, it makes for an easy and enjoyable watch. I love the grandmothers and the doting General. The General makes me smile each tie he tries to please his daughter and to make up for lost times. The revenge/investigation plot was fine, but not as tightly-written. I feel the last episode was a little rushed and screentime could have been better distributed with a stronger focus on the crime/villains, than the wedding festivities. For some, our leads might be overly smart and can seem too perfect. But I have to say, I enjoy watching them outsmart everyone and I don’t have to worry too much about them, thus, making this an easy, stress-free watch. Overall, “The Rise of Ning” kept my attention for almost the whole drama when I was binge-watching it.

Romance:
Unfortunately, I am disappointed with the main romance. The leads have better chemistry as siblings than when they’re lovers. I found FL’s transition from sibling love to romantic love too abrupt and out of nowhere. Additionally, I felt a little weird watching the leads together as siblings, yet feel they're a little too intimate. The secret of the birth identity was not revealed until the last ¼ of the drama, thus not allowing enough time for the romance to develop well. If you are looking for cute and fluffy scenes, then you will be even more disappointed. Surprisingly, I am more touched by 2ML’s storyline. I might be the minority here. I don’t find him too annoying despite wanting to be with FL for most of the drama. His scenes with FL were short ones and sporadic. In the end, instead of frowning upon his obsession and shaking my head, I feel bad for him and wish he would have a better ending. Luckily, the secondary romance is a little cuter and much more innocent. They don’t take up too much of the leads screen time and enough to just keep me happy.

Acting:
From the youngest to the oldest, the acting of the whole cast is pretty good. Zhang Wan Yi’s role is more mature and reserved, compared to his role in “Are You The One”. It’s a joy to watch him again especially when he continues to dub his own lines. He has quite a unique voice and his line delivery isn’t bad. Ren Min performed better than when she’s in “The Longest Promise”. I believe she dubbed her own lines as well and she also has quite a unique voice that takes me a little while to get used to. Ci Sha is awesome and that’s why I feel so bad for his character. The rest of the younger supporting cast did fine but the veterans really shine.

Production:
999 Cold medicine must have contributed a lot to the drama’s budget to give us beautiful costumes and sets. The leads clothes and accessories change throughout the drama to reflect their change in socio-economic status. Ren Min is gorgeous in this drama. She has the best make-up out of everyone (everyone else’s is not good) and her clothes are beautiful. Zhang Wan Yi looks dashing (and quite skinny) in his nicely patterned outfits. I love the sets inside the Luo mansion: the gardens, FL and ML’s individual quarters, and all the fixtures and decorations. The wedding scenes are elaborate and I’ve never seen the bride throw chopsticks (like she’s throwing a bouquet of flowers). The fight scenes are OK and I wasn’t really expecting much anyway. “The Rise of Ning” only has 5 songs in the OST and they complemented the scene well. I really like the main theme <安宁> by A-Lin.


I had a pretty good time watching “The Rise of Ning” and I’ll recommend it. Tamper the expectations of romance and don’t expect sizzling chemistry, cute and fluffy scenes or great skinship. But the drama has pretty good acting, stories about families, beautiful clothes, lovely characters and ‘villains’ who are not too infuriating.



Completed: 11/9/2024 - Review #510

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Honest review—it’s an average drama

I’ll be straight to the point. This drama has flaws, but it’s still watchable. Well for me, I love family dramas, and that’s the reason why I managed to finish this series despite having some issues. English is not my first language, so forgive me if there will be some grammatical mistakes here.

STORY:
Messy storyline. It’s good but I wish they did better. It is fast-paced so it keeps you interested on what will happen next. Some scenes are unnecessary and are not making any sense but in the end it’s just a fictional story, so what do we expect?

ACTING:
For the FL, her acting is not consistent. It’s very bad on the first half of the drama, but she improved a bit on the second half. Idk if she’s also the one who dubbed her voice here. Her voice is also so annoying but it becomes bearable because you will get used to it after some time. Another problem is how she deliver her lines. There are some scenes where in she rushes her lines, and it doesn’t match with the emotion she needs to convey . Sometimes her tone also doesn’t match the emotion. I believe she needs to practice more in this area. For her facial expressions, it’s mostly a look of confusion. Whether she’s angry, confused, happy, or concerned, she will just put her eyebrows together and make her eyes bigger, and think she’s already acting. I guess it’s still better than having just a stiff face. Well, she improved a bit on the second half of the drama, but it’s still there. Watch the drama and you’ll know what I mean. Also, her appearance here is better than TLP. Actually it’s her best look. Her hair, outfit, and makeup suits her well compared to her previous projects. But Renmin should stop or avoid doing scenes where in she needs to have her hair untied without any accessories (example: her looks during night time). It looks weird on her.

ML is good, but lacks a bit of love in his eyes. Idk I just feel like something is lacking. He looks more inlove in LYF. Sometimes his acting also looks weird or forced but overall, he’s good. Maybe their chemistry is just weak.

Other characters: I loved them more than the main characters. The character development of the supporting characters are well-written. I love Yixiu my girl, but she should’ve chosen the han guy or maybe a better partner. (I mean he’s weird but Lin mao is also weird😅 linmao insulted her in their first meeting and he keeps calling her fat). I love Yiyu too, and for me she’s the beautiful woman in this drama. AND OFCOURSE MY FAVORITE LIN HAIRU!! She’s the best. Their acting are on point.

MUSIC:
Music is good but they didn’t stick to me that much. I don’t sing along with the music unlike to other dramas with catchy ost.

Overall it’s just an average drama. No ‘wow’ factor. Story is predictable. If you want a drama with a good ending, then this is for you.

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And the Dangerous Delulu Award Goes To? SML! The Rest Was Solid Though

This is the 4th drama of ZWY that I'm watching this year after both LYFs and AYTO. I really like his characters; in this one he really was a chameleon of sorts. RM I'd only previously seen in TLP and I liked her here much more. Familiar with a lot of the supporting. The show wasn't a new concept but what made it good was the intelligence of our leads to outsmart all the schemers and villains. But the unfortunate part was that the SML and his dangerous towards FL.

Pros: As mentioned, not a new concept but strength in smarts. Was very much like the Double where you had a household of scheming wicked women but a very smart FL and her equally on point "3rd brother". The majority show was about how she would swart evil plans of the women in the Luo family. She also had the support of her adoptive mother and grandmother as well as 6th uncle and 6th sister. Though she wasn't related by blood to any of them as that was uncovered later, they still treated her like family. ML meanwhile, while finding out her about them not being related, still had her back and developed feelings first. He though was running an underground organization of fighters trying to overturn an 8 year old case of their master being framed for embezzlement and executed. While he acted like the slow witted guy in a side yard at home; in reality he was intelligent, had wonderful martial arts skills, and was very strategic. All that was brought home when he became the top 3 scorer on their exams; his disgusting father who hated his guts had to come to the realization that this son out did him in everything and even though many of us still didn't like the father after his evolution, at least he wasn't a rotten bastard anymore.

While FL was trying to uncover the secret behind her mother's early passing she also found her biological father who was literally father of the year in comparison to the Luo dude. This man was everything FL deserved in a father. Though the transition to the new family was bumpy, it was a lot better than where she originally came from although all of the wicked women were dealt with or evolved after being married off. By the end both families blended nicely, our leads were married with a baby boy and it was the epitome of tranquility. All of the antagonists plots were overturned by the persistence, patience, and hard work of ML and his people along with everyone who helped which included FL's father the Duke towards the end.

Costumes, OSTs, sets, were nice.

Cons: SML! Holy hell! Literally the most obsessive/possessive delusional 3rd wheel I've probably seen since introduced in whichever episode. He even ruined their wedding by abducting FL and killing people to make it look like her and was planning to leave town with her even though she was someone else's wife, didn't love him, etc. it was sickening. I thought the dude from "Girl Goes to Imperial College" was bad as he actually poisoned FL in the "if I can't have her, no one can" deal but thankfully the leads outsmarted him pretending she died. But this dude was savage; he harmed her, forced her against walls, and if got away with taking her away, probably would have raped her. He was a brute and his death was a total copout because not only did it take half of the last episode but they made it all soft and easy. He took an arrow for her and one minute she was the abductee to crouching and clutching his shoulders. I was in total shock! And I wasn't the only one. Like girl, what are you doing? Your husband is standing right there! Make it make sense please. Knocked half a point off the rating right away. The man made your skin crawl with how disgusting his obsession was and I would have personally sent him through a wood chipper and here she is after all the times he's hurt her and those around her, holding him. It was beyond stupidity. Can't hit my head against the wall hard enough. He took too much away from our couple and their happily ever after.

Also, how weird and creepy was the FL still calling ML "3rd Brother" after they were together, then married and even after the kid was born. Like is the boy supposed to call his father, uncle? Writers majorly screwed that up. It was completely out of place.

A few plot holes with Mistress Qiao's kids at the end; I thought both were sent away somewhere to reflect on themselves especially the scheming daughter but at the end she shows up all worldly with a mention of having married an official. Wasn't she sent to a temple though?

Would I recommend it? Despite the horrible SML whom you can ffw as he just adds more ick than anything else, this show is good and empowering because it has two beyond smart people dealing with both family and justice issues.

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Loved until I didn’t…

I had a really fun time with this. We got so many different but all interesting plot lines, one after another within the Luo household between both ShenYuan and YiNing along with the other family members and villains. I didn’t care much for the side plot love triangle with her uncle and cousin, but apart from that I was pretty invested in all that was going on.

I do think it fell off in the last 10 or so episodes.
The lead romance was poorly paced and very rushed on YiNing’s side, which makes sense since it really only had a few episodes to get going when they revealed her true identity to her so late in. I bought ShenYuan’s feelings for her since he knew they weren’t related all along, but her’s seemed to reciprocate very abruptly. She even kept calling him third brother in their romantic scenes which threw it off even more. The wall between sibling love and romantic love was never shown as divided for her to us. I did enjoy their relationship up until the “romance” began. I was really looking forward to how their love story would play out but it ended up just materializing from thin air which was disappointing.

I really appreciate Ci Sha. The simplicity of him using his own hair instead of the wigs like all other men in these shows really stands out. But apart from that, his performance here was phenomenal too! I really wish they explored LiNing’s side to their relationship more. She seemed to brush it under the rug and preferred to pretend it never happened, but it did and she did have feelings back then. To ignore it entirely even after learning of the misunderstanding was a little odd. It would make more sense if they better paced her romantic feelings for ShenYuan so we’d have proof she’s really moved on, but again those never clicked for me due to the last minute appearance of them.

I’m keeping it at an 8 despite the later episodes having let me down, because I did really really enjoy it for well more than half of it. It was a delight and exciting to wake up to new episodes every day.

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They are not Blood Sibling in Episode 8

As other asked, "What! Blood brother and sister (same father but different mother) fell in love?" In Episode 8, Shen Yuan found out that Yi Ning mother was kidnapped, raped, and pregnant with Ning. Then her mother was trying to abort her, but unsuccessful. Ning ended up was born pre-immature and has health issue. Then the romance begins to unfold.

At first I want to drop this story because the person who summarized the story inaccurately. It should be revised to make this story more interesting. So far, it has plot, irony, twist and turn, sense of humor, kung fu, etc. This story has everything. It is better than the story of women jealousy over one man and power struggle.

I think her father killed her mother for money (Dowry) since they don't have feeling for each other. In all the Chinese drama, the women give dowry to the groom. That is in India. China, the groom gives dowry to the bride. That is the same as Thailand. I am a Chinese who was born in Thailand and I understand both culture. When I watch many historical Chinese drama, they confuse me sometimes of the real cultures. Maybe the Communism got it wrong because they kill the culture.

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