Wonderland of Love (2023)

Scriptwriter

The series is finally over. It was one of the most flawed and wrong scripts of the TV series I've watched recently. I mentioned this frequently in my comments. But I watched it until the end. It ended well. It's all over. Those who made mistakes, those who did wrong, and the traitors were punished. Of course, Li Ni became emperor, but since he did not want to be, he left the throne to the son of the previous Crown Princess, even though he was his son. This is not a very common behavior. If I were emperor and I had a son, I would leave the empire to my son. This is normal. However, there was a show of heroism here, an event rarely seen in history, and the throne was left to one of the grandsons of the previous emperor. Let's call this a utopia. It could be. Because empire is not a job that can be done very well. It may be better to stay in a more comfortable area. Li Ni preferred this. In fact, according to the role assigned by the scriptwriter, he became responsible for the security of the border. Sounds like a simple job? Does he sleep until the evening? It's nothing like that. But he was shown as living like a commoner. They are happy. I guess this is what is meant.
The scriptwriter may have made mistakes in editing. He may not have been able to make the desired transitions and mannerisms correctly, but he was successful in love games. He painted a beautiful image of love. Although the sickly stepchild had a lot of love. He also helped in the last moment, but apart from these, the love between Li Ni and Cui Lin was handled well. The love between Taozi and Chang Er was also depicted very humorously and sincerely. In that respect, I congratulate the screenwriter. I think he should write scripts for Romance TV series. He should never engage in TV series that involve such strategic, game, cheating, political, or activation activities. Don't say that my series was watched well or got ratings or anything like that. Not because of him. Let him pray for the actors and the director. The cast was very good. The actors played incredibly well. Let's not violate their rights. Our director was excellent. The scene where Gu Wan Niang wandered around the city and said "I am the Crown Princess" in the last scenes, out of her mind, was very, very good. Our actress, Jia Min, did this beautifully, just as she portrayed the traitor under her pure, innocent beauty. I wouldn't expect it from him. I say well done. I show him as one of the best in the series. I want to see him as the lead. It is announced to the directors.
As for the script, as I said, it was below par. I got very angry while watching it. Although the series should have been rated 8-9, I gave it a lower score for that reason.

Read More

Xu Kai

I really loved this drama ,this is my best Chinese drama for this year after this is Hidden Love and best couple for this year ,I love Xu Kia he's such a good actor,the actress was beautiful and amazing,I loved their chemistry it also had good osts ,I really thought she died I was scared for a minute there ,I can't believe it took the useless father 40 episodes to realize what a filial son he had ,Anyway I really loved everything about this drama ,the ending was great too ,I recommend this to everyone ,I don't usually watch 40 episodes drama but this is just amazing,Xu Kai my favorite Chinese actor love you man 😊.

Read More

A Truly Beautiful Drama

Okay, now I understand why this drama has such high ratings.

It truly deserves even more than that. It was beautifully crafted with a compelling storyline, the best chemistry and romance between the leads, heart-wrenching moments, and a flawless OST, scoring a perfect 10/10. I could go on and on about how awesome this drama is. Each episode feels like a little emotional journey that sticks with you. It's not just a show; it's like living these moments with the characters.

However, one minor drawback was the occasional repetitiveness, particularly in certain scenes. There were too many small breakups and goodbyes, which at times felt excessive. Additionally, their relationship seemed somewhat toxic and manipulative after some point. Following a breakup, they would reconcile as if nothing had happened, without addressing the issues that occurred, honestly I found that frustrating.

Not every relationship is perfect, and in the end, it was sufficient that their love made sense and was convincing. After numerous tears, the show is finally finished.

Read More

How the Actors Save the Day

The story was just ok for me. The writing wasn't spectacular. The story dragged in parts, but I was so invested in the characters and their relationships that I kept coming back for more. Some of the villains were a little poorly written, no depth really. The same old ploy with the ministers - give them a fake story and they run with it, and in this case, an emperor who was that and worse. Still, the cast did a wonderful job in bringing their characters to life. I loathed the bad guys, loved the good guys.

Liked the camaraderie of the soldiers - and wished for a happier ending for them. The ending was nicely tied up for the most part, but I like to see what's happening and not get a narrative. So, I would have liked to see the young emperor with his two older mentors come back to the palace, and I would have liked to see a family (or even a wedding) for Chang'er & Taozi. And hey, what happened to Pei Yuan?!

And of course, the real draw for me... Xu Kai. That face! His expressions! OMG he is absolutely gorgeous in historical garb, especially the military uniforms! WOWZA! And he's a god on a horse! The chemistry between he and Jing Tian was sweet. Their bantering was cute and funny - and oddly enough for me, because I don't usually care for fight scenes, theirs were nicely coordinated and executed. They looked great, especially fighting together against a common foe. The way they got the evil minister *perfect*!

I didn't expect to like this drama as much as I did, and I might even go back and watch it again if I had time on my hands and just wanted a good dose of eye-candy (Xu Kai) and a little romance. If there had been better writing perhaps, I could have given this a higher score - but the acting earned all the points.

Read More

Engaging story, solid but boxed performance from Xu Kai

From the director of The Untamed and The Legends, no less! My expectations suddenly skyrocket, especially after last seeing Xu Kai in the rather disappointing She and Her Perfect Husband.

The Chinese title, LeYouYuan, is also the title of a Tang dynasty poem envisioning a beautiful but fleeting world (my rough interpretation). Translated as Wonderland Plains in the show, it represents both a physical and mental refuge and happy place. WoL is a tale of erupting power struggles in the wake of a coup. Li Ni (XK) is one of the last surviving members of a royal lineage in a kingdom usurped by a rebel traitor. Three major parties then vie for control of the land and resources: Li Ni's ShenXi army (loyal to his murdered grandfather, the former emperor), the independent and very powerful Cui Family army, and the self-declared new Commander-in-Chief Sun Jing. However, Sun's brutal reign forces an uneasy alliance between the ShenXi and Cui armies. Li Ni meets the sharp and cunning Cui Captain He (Jing Tian), and begins negotiating not only joint trade and conquest, but also love.

I've been following XK's work since Ancient Love Poetry. I saw hints in ALP (as well as The Legends) that he could be a very good dramatic actor but, so far that I've seen, he seemed to be playing the same type of character in most of his shows: ie. the boyish, cocky but likeable hero type, always cool, understated, and at the top of his game. I keep watching him to see if he can break out of this box, and unfortunately WoL doesn't stretch his range.

WoL starts off as a light formula romance, against a big backdrop of war and politics. By Ep20 the drama turns more serious as Li Ni learns Capt He's true identity and factors it into his political strategy. In fact, they both don't hesitate to use each other. Things then get far more interesting as he tries to balance his goals for the country against those for himself, which triggers direct conflict with Capt He's own vision for country, self, and themselves as a couple. The course of their relationship through treacherous terrain makes their characters more sympathetic as their belief systems start to clash. Circumstances push them to the brink in an horrific (and excruciatingly long) battle scene. Will either of them sacrifice their core tenets for the other? At this point the strengths of XK's and JT's performances come further through a crushingly sad wedding scene. Toward what seems will be a tragic ending, XK pushes to his best performance (but doesn't break the box), before the story winds down with a conventional ending.

The story is strictly wuxia and what makes it dense are the fluid shifts of alliances between the 3 groups as they manage not only dealings with each other but also challenges from within their own ranks. The most dangerous foes come from your own family. This results in a fairly large cast of characters, and the ensemble cast is competent, with many familiar faces.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable drama with decent performances and an engaging storyline. XK fans will be pleased with this work.

Read More

One of my Favorite Dramas of the Year

This drama was pretty much exactly what I've wanted from all of the historical/fantasy cdramas that I've watched (and not always finished) in the past.
It has smart and good characters, who go through an actual journey and have growth throughout the show. I also liked the fact that the writers never sacrificed how smart/cunning Li Ni and Cui Lin were for the sake of the plot. Things went wrong, but not because they were stupid and made poor choices.
The story itself was really enjoyable. It held my attention and had good pacing (something that lacks in a lot of cdramas imo). I also liked that while main story points were finished off and new ones took their places, it never felt forced or weird.
Even though I liked the tone of the show (it was light and serious when it needed to be, with just the right amount of angst) I do wish that characters/plots were allowed to be a little darker than they were. For example, I would've liked to see Miss Gu be more sinister and cunning to get her way. Same for the main villains--let's see them being more EVIL!
Lastly, while I really liked the ending, I do wish the climax was a little more intense. I wish that we'd built up to it more so that I was on the edge of my seat, but for what it was, I did really like it and how it played out in the end!

Read More

It's Getting Worse and Worse

I’ll start by saying that I have recently not been the most optimistic about where C-dramas are heading, it just seems to get worse and worse by the year. Never mind I’ll elaborate. At first, I never wanted to write a review based on the first few episodes because as you know things can change in the latter stages, and at the time of writing, it’s 10 episodes left on the entire drama but I just couldn’t keep these thoughts to myself and decided I’d share them at least on the spot. This is mainly because I expect no sharp turns or surprises ahead.
For a start, I see everyone going on about how this drama has been so intense, entertaining, and all that but for me, I just honestly couldn’t tell you what’s happened to C-dramas recently. There are a lot of people that shouldn’t have even made it to the latter episodes of this drama for me, a lot of plots should’ve been resolved much better and faster, the supposed villains were in all honesty laughable and now my narrative that Xu Kai only acts in the very best C-drama seems to be in the mud. CDRAMA HAS MASSIVELY FALLEN OFF. The character Xu Kai has to be dominant in some way shape or form whether intellectually, in terms of strength, or authority, as he has been in his previous successful dramas, he’s not just any actor as many previous dramas have proven, and by using him this way you extract his full potential but I just don’t get why some producers or even however is in charge of selecting actors don’t try and fathom this. Portraying him as a normal character just hasn’t worked with the likes of Snow Eagle Lord, Royal Feast and even this drama, and I really do hope many other dramas he features in take a lesson from this. I massively emphasize this because Xu Kai is my favourite actor at the moment, and I just cannot bear to watch a blatant decline right in front of my eyes.
The acting was decent and as it has been the theme recently, the storyline was average at best. Where’s the smart funny Xu Kai we all fell in love with? Where’s the meticulous planning? Why does the ML have to be slow to recognise danger and why doesn’t he seem to learn from mistakes? All these are flaws in the storyline which I’d say was WEAK and that’s with trying. The ML and FL were fantastic for me, Vincent He (Pei Yuan), and He Zhong Hua (Gu Xiang), just to mention a few of the fantastic support actors, were all just doing what they do best and that is acting their roles to their fullness. As for Gao Han (Liu Cheng Feng), it was a poor casting that’s all I’ll say.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this drama for the above reasons because I think they were just trying to extend it for as long as possible. Each pretty much after the around 15 episode-mark felt like the drama was reaching the climax only for the actors to, for example, ignore the priority, turn a blind eye to something crucial, do something absolutely irrelevant or even add an unnecessary scene just so it could make up the drama episodes.

Read More

Very good

Good drama good good very good very good best cast very good and happy new month to you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you and God bless you and your family from the wonderful day of the day of God you are blessed to you and your heart and prosperity to your family and your family to be happy to be blessed and blessed to your family and family and family members and you are blessed to be blessed and blessed to you and your family and family members and all of your life and prosperity and prosperity and prosperity and prosperity to you and your family and family members and

Read More

Don’t watch this if you’ve finished watching Story of Kunning Palace

i had a high expectation towards this one, and if you looking at the ratings and comments section, it’s all about praising this drama.

But..

I watched this after finishing SOKP, and it leads to a dissatisfaction.

i keep comparing these two dramas.

i swear i’m not biased since i’m a big fans of Xu Kai and i like Jing Tian from Legend of Zhuo Hua.

so, in my opinion, DON’T WATCH THIS AFTER SOKP. you have to watch it beforehand.

I believe if I watched this first, i will really really love it.

so i olny give 7 to this one (i tend to give 10 for dramas that i really2 love and not speeding up any scene at all like SOKP, yet in WOL I watched this with 2x speed after 15eps).

Read More

Director did his magic and Xu Kai was amazing

The story had a good flow. The director did a great job with the action sequences( full credit to the stunt coordinator ) and the story telling.
Xu Kai's acting was really good. He effectively conveyed a lot through his subtle looks and mannerisms. His eyes conveyed all sorts of emotions especially the saddest parts of the story. The female lead can be seen as a role model for many girls who are growing up.

Episode 30 was the best episode in this series. And will forever remain as one of the best pieces of art I have ever seen. The action was amazing and the heart wrenching parts( I cried through the whole episode and I don't usually cry that much ever) were equally amazing. Three cheers to the actors and kudos to the crew ( director specifically) for that amazing piece of moving picture art.
Most of the sub plots and sub characters had good storyline.
The main villain through the story was relationships and the difficulty it can create in our lives. Some of us who have strained relationships with friends or family or significant others , can really see ourselves through this series( which actually I wasn't expecting to see at all in this drama but it did show it -- the bonds, the trust issues, the things that can hold us back, and some of our greatest weaknesses--our own family).
People who come to see romance in this show will be satisfied as well because the chemistry between the two leads is sizzling.
But I am sure some of us who love to see good shows will remain for the action sequences and the dynamics between friends,family(adopted or real) and lovers.
I will surely rewatch it once again when I am done with the whole list of others shows I have been keeping on pending for years.

Read More

“Wonderland of Love” is a great romance drama set in a historical period. The drama is an adaptation of the novel written by Fei Wo Si Cun, the pen name of the popular Chinese writer Ai Jingjing, original creator of “Good Bye, My Princess”. Wonderland of Love is really a masterpiece with a fantastic cast that masterfully brought their characters to life. This drama has a solid plot with great entertainment value, there are great action scenes, aesthetically pleasing cinematography , well placed sounds that adds depth and realism to the drama as well as a beautiful OST that helps convey the emotions of the actors and their actions. The leading couple, Xu Kai (as Li Ni / Shiqi Lang) and Jing Tian (as Cui Lin / A Ying) are a force to be reckoned with. Their characters are equally supplemented with artful intelligence and strategic schemes, great combat skills, strong mental and emotional bond, and a fantastic chemistry. Their
playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks, the way that they understood each other, and their steadfast love was delivered beautifully throughout the drama. The drama would not have been as great if it was not also that the supporting cast (friends and antagonists) was phenomenal. If there is one thing to complain, for romance lovers, is that the leading’s couple romantic scenes takes always ended up with distant camera shots and angles. Still, Xu Kai and Jing Tian manage to delivers some heartbreaking and heart fluttering scenes that made the intensity of their love realistic. Overall, this drama is extraordinary, enjoy it!

Read More