One of the Best drama from Bai Lu! Queen of Wuxia drama
*Positive things* : the chemistry's off all actor/actress is very good , their acting very impresif, especially Xue Shu and princess. I really dont like Xue Shu, but this thing proof her acting really good.I like how jealously XW with Zhang Zhe until the end, its so funny.. Even his child respect Zhang Zhe. 🤣
Finally, we got happy ending for Bai Lu wuxia drama compare to Till The End of The Moon. As expected, Bai Lu acting very good!
The negative :
- The soundtrack drama is so so, i mean not too good but not bad.
- Ep 37-38, i expect more conflict, but turn is out, the result predictable.
Anyway i glad to know and watch this drama, it will be one of the best drama in 2023!!
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This review may contain spoilers
(a rant)Firstly - the story is ridiculous. I enjoyed it sure, and it wasn't bad. Still it went so over the board.
I still appreciate the range: there were botha green and a red flag next to each other in one frame (Lyu Xian and Xie Wei).
Xie Wei is so ridiculous I only agree to have him for Xue Ning and Yan Lin. He is lowkey suicidal, keeps hurting himself, is irritable and agressive, but also has pretty eyes, so I guess we like him.
I've seen said that both ML and FL in this drama are grey characters, so suitble for each other, but I don't agree. (What, a woman makes one mistake and suddenly she's as bad as a man who made 100). Whatever people say, Xie Wei is obssesive, childish and imposing. As I think about it, I didn't like him though the entirety of the drama, and still don't (the last scene made me like him less if anything).
Second - I love Xue Ning. I really enjoy the strong female leads that apeared in dramas over the recent years. The princess was awesome (she was a perfect princess), I still not quite over it that she fell for Xue Ning. Their friendship was one of the highlights of the show for me.
I liked how both the Jing and Yan fathers were good parents. Also the bromance of Xie Wei's guards (the wink!).
I love Xue Ning, she keeps her composure, helps women, and invested in stocks as soon as she traveled in time. She is the center of the story and the best part of it.
Stil I had a hard time, going over the last episodes of the the drama, it dragged some places, were other times it omitted characters until they had to die, or just never appeared again.
Overall it wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't watch it again. I always have a hard time ranking low dramas I invested my time in and sometimes had fun watching , so it's a 7
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This review may contain spoilers
Confusion and Disappointment
From Jiang Xue Ning being the main focus and driving force of the story, she somehow turned into a side character in her own narrative, constantly needing to be saved. After just a few episodes, it became clear that Xie Wei had taken over as the true focus, which felt strange, considering it was Jiang Xue Ning who was supposed to be reliving her life and changing her fate. Instead, she ended up as a puppet, repeatedly rescued and used by Xie Wei.Both Jiang Xue Ning and Xie Wei were repeatedly labeled as “evil,” yet that never truly showed in their actions or personalities. It’s a classic case of inconsistent characterization, where the audience is expected to simply accept what they’re told without actually seeing it play out.
Jiang Xue Ning had genuinely great options when it came to her love interests, but sadly, she chose the worst one, the manchild who believes he can control a woman. If I had to sum up how I felt about Xie Wei, it would be: The Ick. If the word “Ew” were a person, it would be him. Forcing her to kiss him, kicking his own son when he doesn’t get what he wants… but hey, not evil, right? Haha.
The villain was painfully one-dimensional and practically nonexistent for the first 30 episodes, which completely deflated any sense of tension from the start. There was never a real sense of danger for the main characters either, since Xie Wei was portrayed as this overly competent lead who could survive anything. The other villains never felt like an actual threat.
Side characters like Zhang Zhe, Yan Li, You Fangyin, and Jiang Xue Hui were the true highlights of this drama for me. Honestly, I wish they had been the leads, but I guess we can’t have everything we want, right?
I didn’t feel much chemistry between Jiang Xue Ning and Xie Wei either, probably because their romance only started developing after episode 30—and with Xie Wei being the definition of a manchild, it didn’t help. Why do writers keep doing this?
The concept and premise of the drama are fine, but the execution fell flat. Right from the start, we’re told that this is a fictional story being rewritten, which immediately removes all tension. On top of that, introducing us to Jiang Xue Ning as someone who had already gone through her toughest times as an empress and made countless mistakes made it difficult to emotionally connect with her. How are we supposed to empathize with a character whose past we only see through brief snippets? The same goes for Xie Wei; by the time I actually started to understand their backgrounds and motivations, the drama was already nearing its end.
The pacing was also questionable. The last ten episodes were the only truly important ones. Honestly, you could have skipped everything before episode 30 and still followed along just fine, and that’s truly disappointing.
The OSTs were the saving grace of this drama. Other than that, it didn’t have much going for it. The casting didn’t convince me either. I’m not sure Bai Lu can handle these kinds of complex lead roles, and the same goes for Zhang Linghe.
Last but not least, I genuinely don’t understand how this drama is being called the best of 2023. It’s disappointing and confusing at the same time.
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I was so excited to watch this drama, worth my time
Loved it, Loved it & Loved it. From story to acting, everything is perfect.The story is well written. It is about power-play & revenge. I like the leads being grayish character.
Jiang Xue Ning is short-tempered, stubborn, ignorant, smart, cunning, but despite all of that, she is afraid of Xie Wei.
Xie Wei is cold-hearted, cruel, smart, cunning, calculative but scared of cats.
I loved Jiang Xue Ning & Xie Wei interaction. He is always there helping & protecting her, sacrificing for her. It was funny to see Xie Wei saving the qin but not Jiang Xue Ning. Even when Jiang Xue Ning isn't in a good mood or upset to cheer her up, he takes her to his office to practice qin.
As always, Bai Lu did her best. I liked Zhang Ling He acting as well. Also, Zhou Jun Wei & Liu Xie Ning did a good job.
I like Yan Lin but also hate him for what he did to Jiang Xue Ning in the past in his anger. He is immature but gradually understands everything.
I liked Shen Zhi Yi, she is cute & immature. Always there to protect & help Jiang Xue Ning.
Zhang Zhe is a righteous person with strong principles.
Lu Xian is a greedy businessman who always thinks about profit. But he is always there to help Xie Wei & make fun of him. A good friend of his.
You Fang Yin is a trusting and loyal friend of Jiang Xue Ning. She is good at doing business. The ending scene broke my heart. The way Jiang Xue Ning protected her & did everything to keep her save.
It was cute & sweet to see how the princess protected Jiang Xue Ning & did everything to make Jiang Xue Ning her study partner, but poor Jiang Xue Ning didn't want to go to the palace. Their friendship, the thing Jiang Xue Ning did for her so that she doesn't have to go.
Jiang Xue Hui is kind-hearted, considerate. Even after knowing that she is a concubine daughter, she didn't hold it against or make trouble for Jiang Xue Ning as we see in other dramas.
The conversation between Xie Wei & Yan Mu was so heart touching, I feel Yan Mu may have guessed it at that moment.
Jiang Xue Ning mother is so annoying. She doesn't let Jiang Xue Ning explain or talk. Always blaming everything on her not knowing the truth.
I loved Lu Xian & Jiu Shu bickering.
The way Jiang Xue Ning tried so hard to fail the exam so that she didn't have to enter into the palace.
It was funny how Zhou Bao Ying took away walnut cake from Jiang Xue Ning & the same thing Xie Wei did to her.
Everyone's reaction to You Fang Yin & Lu Xian getting married.
It's The Starry Cast reunion. The famous TTEOM stairs.
I liked the kisses given that the director is famous, using lights, birds & flowers in kissing scenes.
I loved OST.
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This review may contain spoilers
Revenge, obsession, and second chances
🌸 My Rubric-Based Rating – Story of Kunning Palace 🌸(Using a 5–3–1 scale across 9 categories)
💖 Romance Quality
5 Perfect chemistry and satisfying development between Ning & Xie.
😄 Comedy
3 Some good comic relief (Fake Dingfei!), but not a central focus.
🧩 Plot/Intrigue
5 Well-crafted, emotionally complex, and full of satisfying twists.
🎵 Soundtrack
5 Memorable, haunting, and romantic—top-tier OST.
🏛 World-Building
3 Good palace intrigue, though not as deep as high fantasy.
👘 Visuals/Costume
5 Visually stunning with elegant styling and beautiful details.
📺 Binge Factor
5 Addictive pacing—absolutely stayed up for “just one more ep.”
🎭 Acting
5 Excellent range and nuance, especially from Zhang Ling He.
⚔️ Conflict
5 Creative, emotionally driven, and well-resolved.
🧾 Total: 41/45 → 🌟 Final MDL Rating: 9.1/10
Story of Kunning Palace had everything I love—intense romance, great acting, poetic justice, and a twisty, emotionally rich plot. Bai Lu and Zhang Ling He had incredible chemistry, and seeing ZLH in such a dark, yandere role was a treat. I loved all 3 love interests, and while the ending with Xie Wei made sense (and gave us that sweet wedding extra!), I still rooted for Zhang Zhe and Yan Lin at times. The side characters were strong, the villains were detestable, and the OST was bangin'. I only wish Fangyin had lived. Still, this was a beautifully written and satisfying drama from start to end. Tbh, it was the best thing for me to watch after Till the End of the Moon. It wasn't xianxia but it kept me invested and happy in the end!
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This story is time travel and not reincarnation
The StoryIn the first 15 minutes (Therefore, this is not a spoiler), the Heroine dies, then gets a second chance to live her life again. Her is transported back in time via an unknown reason, hopefully to correct her past mistakes in life. The Story of Kunning Palace is a Time Slip (Time Travel) Drama, or this suggests that the means for time travel is not established. Nonetheless, this is a story within a story and is inventively designed. Both stories run concurrently, as the first life of the Heroine is threaded into the second life as flashbacks.
The heroine is the daughter of nobility, but she was switched at birth. The Noblewoman is raised as a plebeian and the switched plebeian is raised as a noblewoman. When all is discovered decades later, due to sentimentality and other reasons, the legitimate Heroine is accepted into the family only as a second daughter and not with the status of the plebeian daughter. This makes for an interesting start to The Story of Kunning Palace.
Quote: “He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick”. Young Warrior from The Story of Kunning Palace.
I love complicated dramas. The Story of Kunning Palace checks all my Asian drama criteria boxes. There is even a lot of ancient law incorporated into this intelligently written script. However, until enough of the backstory is revealed, the drama may be hard for some to follow. The heroine makes lots of mistakes as she first lives her life, which ends in her death. She is snatched out of her first timeline and reinserted back into the beginning of her failed first chance. What will she do? Will she learn from her past mistakes and correct them or is history doomed to repeat itself? It seems like that many of her efforts to change her new timeline produces failures, as history continues to make corrections back to its past timeline to thwart her new insertions. When under Time Travel restrictions, if one cannot makes changes or corrections in the new timeline then one is in a time alternative universe where changes to the future are impossible.
The heroine, who actually turned out to be a wicked person in the first timeline, gets a new chance to live a proper life. You see her make conscious efforts to correct past mistakes as these mistakes are revealed through her constant flashbacks to her original timeline. However, overall, her life course seems destined to be repeated. Will she succeed in correcting her past and saving all the lives she destroyed. You must watch The Story of Kunning Palace to find out.
Note: Some have flagged ‘The Story of Kunning Palace’ as drama about reincarnation.
It is not. Reincarnation is rebirth into a new body. The drama is a reinsertion into a first life and thus is Time Travel and not Reincarnation.
Quote: “What the world needs is heartless men. Those who abide by the rules can’t move forward fast enough. So screw the rules”. Anti-hero from The Story of Kunning Palace.
Quote: “I would not dare to ask your Majesty to move. But I also have a message for your Majesty. You must know that a man who is greedy for his own profit and who seeks the skin of a tiger, does not know that the tiger is a tiger”. Lowly Court Official loved by Her Majesty from The Story of Kunning Palace.
Actors Corner
Bai Lu—Strong female role with a woman who knows how to pull the surprise, by playing dumb.
Zhang Ling He—The anti-hero (Villain) you will love and hate to be confused by.
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Donot feel bored watching first few ep keep watching every ep them u will know how good this drama is .I hope everyone of u will like it.
From my point of view,I really like this drama specially zhang linghe (ml) and Bai lu (fl) their chemistry and later romance is damnnnnn!!!!
Other actors their roles all are perfect everything is so smooth
I hope they will lead another drama in near future.
Zhang linghe 's acting is so damn hot I cannot resist it feels like he is a real villian hehehe
Love from Isha💓
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I enjoyed every second
The casting was exceptionnal! I've seen a lot of Bai Lu's dramas and she was just as great as always, but it was only my 2nd time seeing Zhang Ling He and he really made an impression on me. Some scenes were so intense and powerful I had to watch them twice or 3 times just to focus on there expressions without needing to read the subtitles. Same for the princess, great choice.I would say I liked a lot of the characters, even the vilains, they were well written and truely usefull to the story.
The writting of the drama was also really good : great storytelling, interesting dialogues: no basic or common "wise" sentences - after watching so many Cdramas, they kind of all sound similar at some point - but these ones were truely original and adequate.
I really liked the concept of finding, NOT the best person you can find, but someone that truely fits you and understands you. There are so many dramas where you don't actually understand why the main leads are in love with each other... okay they're hot, but what else? Why are they so willing to sacrifice everything for this one person? Well this drama did an amazing job showing that.
I'm the kind who likes to skip ahead when the political games get too boring or take too much place, but I don't think I've done this once in this drama. Despide the main romance not being at the center of the show, they still managed to keep it interesting.
I look forward to watching other dramas by this screenwriter and seeing those actors again.
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A GREAT POWER DRAMA FOR 2023
Last year there were many power dramas that kept us happy, this year not so much. But fortunately, we have one in Story of Kunning Palace. It has the actors (some A-listers) playing intense parts with martial arts skills in a great plotline with gorgeous costumes and a superb soundtrack that adds to the different scenes in a wonderful cohesion. I don't usually give dramas a 10 rating, but the story and the acting just makes me riveted to this exciting drama. There is also its share of light-hearted moments and characters. Case in point; the actor who plays Dingfei gives this otherwise serious drama the comic-relief that is needed to keep it from becoming too gloomy. I highly recommend this power drama to binge on. Happy drama-watching.Was this review helpful to you?
When you get the chance to do over
The chance to right your mistakes is one of the top wishful thinkings that never loses its charm.By right, the premise for Story of Kunning Palace (SoKP) already makes for a great start … By left though, SoKP falls through in the genre of reborn stories with poor camera angles and lighting, story execution and okay-ish actor / actress caliber.
Director Chu is infamous in the industry for his weird camera angles and inappropriate lighting position - so I will not delve deep into this. As a general viewer, I don’t have the professional knowledge to critique this constructively. The only thing I would say is it indeed cut down my viewing experience by a fair bit.
Onto the story. Jiang Xuening was the evil, alluring empress that was given the chance to redo life when she found she was back to her 18-year old self.
First things first, like any idol drama, I think evil can and should be contested. She was morally flexible and selfish in her first life, but to emphasise she was evil and thus, felt this deep regret to redeem her past actions to Yan Lin and Zhang Zhe was a bit lost on me. I felt that this may be due to the lost of translation from the original novel to drama adaptation.
This leads to the second, related point. The director and editors presented the story such that flashbacks of 1st life would play out right before the big event happened in 2nd life, and then we would watch how Xuening did differently after. On one hand, it made the story less draggy. On the other, it made me feel less engaged with Xuening’s motivation because I didn’t get enough context on why she felt a certain way with some characters in the scene. Like why she is so afraid of Xie Wei. Or why is she so grateful towards Fangyin. I mean they did mention why with the brief flashbacks, but the impact wasn’t deep enough for me to truly grasp the full picture of Xuening’s feelings. Not to mention, some of the flashbacks felt disjointed too.
Xie Wei should be an intriguing male lead - with his obvious backstory that closely mirror of Mei Chang Su story from Nirvana in Fire. Alas, while one may be able to copy the surface level stuff, the spirit or essence of classics is not as easily replicated. Maybe it’s the screenwriter. Maybe it’s the actor. To be fair, I think Zhang Ling He did good enough for his age. His Xie Wei just doesn’t have that charisma or charm for me, for now. Quite a lot of things were diluted to me in SoKP - I couldn’t feel that Xie Wei is was that smart to be able to fool the emperor, ministers, and rebels. There were more questions about how he survived his ordeal as a kid then and the resources he was able to amass at his disposal as an adult now to be able to do what he wanted. Similar to Xuening character, I felt this is also another lost in translation case. I shall stand corrected if I ever find the time to read the novel.
The funny thing was I got more intrigued by the side characters stories more than our main leads. One was Xue Hui’s arc, Xuening’s sister who was wise and truly just wanted to live her life peacefully but was misunderstood by Xuening for her indifference, in the 1st life. As Xuening chose differently this time, she came to better understand the person beneath the protective shell Xue Hui’s has built. Pity that Xue Hui didn’t even appear much on screen. Another one was Yan Lin’s, and I was rather satisfy with his arc. Fangyin’s arc was enjoyable too.
Overall, SoKP is a good enough reborn story that’s not for the nitpicky. It has a good enough storyline that sadly wasn’t translated as robustly on screen.
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Overrated, pretty design but a flat dead world.
TLDR: I really wanted to love this one but it let me down in the second half. Plot hits all the points it should, the actors are alright but the cinematography, lighting, lack of lived in feel and direction to overact drag this drama down to a 7 for me. It's alright but I won't be rewatching.Ratings: So there's a lot of hype for this show especially coming off the success of Til the End of the Moon. Bai Lu is a beloved actress and there was much disappointment when this show's release was delayed. I feel like the eventual score for this show will settle down somewhere in the 7s but in the meantime most reviews are either going to be extremely positive or extremely negative.
Plot:
I found the first half of the show enjoyable and fairly interesting although there was the occasional tedious bit. Personally I love rebirth revenge stories so I felt like this was going to be the show for me. The build up was good, I was enjoying it and then although there were plot points happening the desire to watch and see what happened next disappeared. It really began to drag once they left the capital.
If you read out the main story the plot would be solid. There's a lot happening, you've got a palace intrigue part, a mystery, battles, festivals - truly a little bit of everything and the heroine is involved in all of the above (no pining away at home while the love interest is off to fight!) However the problem is that however dark and edgy they want to make the story they just never follow through. It's obvious from the start that the two main villians of the show aren't going to be on par with the lead couple. The tone is set that no matter how bad the stakes get the leads will find a way to make it through without major pain.
I think there's more to it than that but for me there was so much happening but there was no emotion to it, the story felt dead towards the end.
Acting:
The acting was fine, nothing outstanding, nothing obviously terrible. I don't know whether it was post production, the writing, or the direction that the killed the story so badly.
I think that the actor who plays the male lead has a fair bit of room to improve his acting. He's also fairly young and did a good job in a role that would probably normally be given to an older actor. He potrays a fairly dark character and does a good job of showing the crazy/calculating side he is lacking in being able to bring all his character's traits together into someone who feels like a real person. I felt this a bit with the Bai Lu's character too - she can act fairly well but for some reason it just felt like she was doing what was required rather than putting in an outstanding performance. I felt like it was standard across the whole drama that the actors overacted which makes me think that this was a direction problem more than an acting problem.
Production:
The sets, the clothing, the world were gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Then they served a shit sandwitch when it came to lighting and cinematography. The lighting is horrendous - characters in bright daylight but they're using a white light instead of a warm sunlight light. It being noon but the shadows are all wrong. If the sets and the clothing were low budget I think it would have been less of a problem, but when the sets are so gorgeous the drama would have been on a whole different level if they did things like use real candle light, real sunlight etc. This exacerbated the issues with the plot - if the world doesn't feel alive and lived in then it's only going to provide a pretty backdrop and not give the actors a lot to work with. The other issue was that the sets, although gorgeous, were too perfect and didn't give the vibe that they were lived in. The character's clothes are always clean, there's not a hair out of place etc. No dirt, no dust, if a character gets whipped then they add in most of the blood on the clothes afterwards etc.
Music:
Nothing memorable, nothing jarring but nothing particularily good.
Some people might say that I'm expecting too much from this kind of drama. I would have agreed, especially as I'm cocurrently watching Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace again. However, I have enjoyed shows like Romance of Tiger and Rose and Love like the Galaxy (LLTG). I wouldn't normally make a comparison between two different shows but the difference for me is glaring. In LLTG I cared what happened to the characters, the world and people felt like they could exist somewhere, although I felt like the main couple would make it through it felt like there were real stakes, it was emotional. It had dimension where this show is pretty but completely flat for me. I'm sad because this show had the potential to be everything that I've been looking for in a show but instead I'm struggling to finish.
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Contender for best show!
This rivals Lost You Forever as one of the best storylines I’ve seen this year. You will be dragged in from the first episode and barely any scenes skipped! The dramatic moments, the music, the editing, the acting — all extremely well-done! I love the vibes, the mystery, the tension!!!! This is the escape from reality we all need. I look forward to new episodes and wait agonizingly for the next ones. Every ML is so interesting and I literally can’t decide who to ship. The politics is GENUINELY interesting, and that’s coming from a romance lover. Watch this!Was this review helpful to you?
