An Addictive Historical Drama!
I didn’t expect to enjoy this show as much as I did! I went into it blindly, but I really loved the ride. Normally, I find it hard to finish Chinese historical dramas, but this time, it didn’t bother me at all. There were no cheap plot twists or an overly dragged-out storyline filled with unnecessary filler. In fact, I could’ve watched many more episodes!This is a high-quality drama—there are no awkward cuts or overplayed music. Even though the same songs are used throughout, they are rotated and placed so well that they never feel repetitive or annoying. Everything about the production feels polished and well thought out :)
I highly recommend this drama!
Was this review helpful to you?
cliche c-drama "do over" story
Despite its cliche premise, this drama is very promising at the beginning when heroine Jiang Xuening first resurrects into her younger self. Armed with knowledge of the future, she can gleefully manipulate the situation to her will and the first ten ish episodes are enjoyable if you don't squint too hard.However knowledge from the future is not the same as intelligence, despite the writers' attempt to equate the two. As the plot becomes more muddled somewhere past the halfway mark it becomes clear that neither Jiang Xuening or Xie Wei are very rational or smart. The "politics" makes little sense and moves forward through the help of deus ex machina.
Furthermore the romance is filled with all sorts of strange baggage which is meant to be romantic but gets increasingly odd and kind of unpleasant. To make the ML more "dominant" and edgy, his personality has a definite violent and stalkerish tendency which is meant to be explained away by his dark past. I guess this is what market research shows girls are into in Asia.
One can give credit to the staff for doing a good job of putting the production together, but it can only be considered a polished c- drama and unfortunately not a top tier one.
Was this review helpful to you?
You must watch this masterpiece!
*Story of Kunning Palace* is a historical Chinese drama that delves into themes of power, ambition, love, and redemption. It centers around Jiang Xuening, a woman who once became the empress but met a tragic fate due to her pursuit of power and the ensuing political schemes in the palace. After her downfall, Jiang Xuening unexpectedly gets a second chance at life, waking up in the past before her ascent to power.With the opportunity to rewrite her destiny, she decides to take a different path to avoid the mistakes that led to her tragic end. However, this is no easy task as she navigates a web of palace intrigue, dangerous political factions, and personal vendettas. In the midst of all this, she forms complex relationships with key figures in the court, including a conflicted romantic dynamic with the male lead.
The drama blends palace politics with personal transformation, as Jiang Xuening evolves from an ambitious, power-hungry woman to someone more introspective and compassionate. The second-chance element adds tension to her every decision, knowing that one wrong move could lead her down the same tragic path. There's also a balance between romance and palace drama, with the love story subtly woven into the larger narrative of survival and redemption.
*Story of Kunning Palace* offers a mix of suspense, emotional depth, and historical intrigue, making it appealing for viewers who enjoy character-driven stories with a strong focus on personal growth within the perilous world of royal courts.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Story of Kunning Palace has one of the best pacing of any 2023 drama. The storytelling is intriguing, with suspenseful arcs from the very first episode. The show does a great job of introducing the many characters and establishing their motivations. For the first 30 episodes, the twists and turns, as well as Jiang Xuening's personal growth, captivate the audience. The female friendships are beautiful and the discussion of female power is interesting.The romance isn't the main focus of most of the show. In the beginning, Jiang Xuening struggles with her best friend's romantic feelings for her, while trying to save him and his family this time. In order to achieve this, she begins to plot with her teacher Xie Wei, but only in the last arc does she develop feelings for him. Instead, she longs for her former love, Zhang Zhe, an upright official with a strong sense of justice. One of the main themes of the show is that Jiang Xuening is not a good person, not in this life and certainly not in her last, but she is trying to be better. While Zhang Zhe is not a good match for her, the scheming and violent Xie Wei is. The story of Kunning Palace is not about love, but about intrigue, friendship, ambition and doing the right thing. It's only in the last 8 episodes that there is a real romance, and then the show loses its intrigue.
I was rooting for them right up until the moment their actual relationship developed. Firstly, I'm generally not a fan of the trope of men forcing themselves on women and women giving in until they like it, even if it's under the influence of trauma. Is it reasonable for his character to react that way? Yes, it is. Did the writers have to make him do it? Absolutely not. Especially when it is all framed as sexual tension. They were great as partners in crime, but at that point, is just using trauma for the sake of drama.
Overall, Bai Lu really stole the show. She was absolutely perfect for the part. As for Zhang Linghe, his performance again lacked nuance, but it was better compared to other shows I have seen so far. As for the side characters, the only other one that really stood out for me was Lui Xiening as Princess Le Yang/ Shen Zhi Yi, as well as the scheming Xue Yuan (by Huang Haibing) and his sister, Empress Dowager Xue (by Liu Min). These two were such great villains!
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
Bad camerawork !!! Bad direction !!!
The number of times I had to turn away from the screen because of very bad camerawork , its incredible I completed this drama.I really must award myself for the immense patience ... lolThe premise really intrigued me , a shrewd empress tries to rectify her mistakes in her second chance and this really had potential for a good series ahead - I dont understand who was behind the camera for this whole series - shitty camerawork making all the actors look bad , making the emotional scenes laughable , it was just a visual torture .
Bai lu , Zhang ling he , wang xing yue are decent enough actors to hook me into this series but it was quite a feat to reach the end of the drama .
I really feel bad for zhang ling he especially in this show - he really had the most unflaterring screen presence inspite of being a good looking guy in real life .
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Good but overhyped
You have a great cast and an intriguing plot, and yet it was harder and harder to get through each episode the longer it went on.The whole going back in time and redoing things plot device was good at first but its usefulness runs out early on. I honestly forgot about it half way through because it doesnt matter much to the story anymore. Not that it mattered any way since the entire story is a novel the author wants to re-write to have a less tragic outcome for her leads.
Palace intrigue is the focus here. The FL is eager to take herself out of the messy equation but shes drawn in anyway, so she changes her part in it.
The romamce is extreme slow burn. So slow that its hard to believe when it finally happens in the last handful of episodes. The ML clearly likes the FL for quite some time but it feels like the FL is simply giving in and settling because she cant get away from their fate and be with the one she really wantes. By her actions its clear she cares about ML but romantically she's cold and resigned. It was very underwhelming. There are 2 impassioned forced kisses by the ML and 1 consensual bed scene all toward the end.
I suppose it would be more believable that she fell in love with him if there was more screen time between them but there really isnt room for it with the many, many moving parts of all the plots. The story was just too complex with all the schemeing and backstabbing to thread in a satisfying love line.
The end is cute enough to satisfy most romance fans who hold out for all the episodes. At least there is that.
Was this review helpful to you?
Zhang Linghe's best acting happened in this drama
This drama is one of my fav. Not just because of BaiLu but because of Zhang Linghe's character Xie Wei. That possesive and psychotic behaviour in Xie Wei,god how much I love it. And not to forget,his and BaiLu's kissing scenes..I can say I've never seen such passionate kissing scenes in cdrama. MAN WAS EATING HER. THAT JAW CLENCHING 🤌🏻✨ Even after years I still can't get over of Xie Wei daren. This is ZLH's best character out of all the characters he played so far. 10/10 recommended if you like possesive psycho male leads!!Was this review helpful to you?
Watch, watch, watch...especially if you want a short break from exaggerated xianxia magic!
I am still 'newish' to cdramas so please do forgive me if my review is not as detailed as others, or if I have missed anything about chinese culture and history, I am still learning so I can't add what I don't know yet!If you are looking for 'far from innocent', even doubtful main characters, enjoy period cdramas ( and possibly looking for a break from over the top wuxia and xianxia storylines) then add this to your cdrama binge watch list!
The cinematography, tone and entire vibe of the drama are very mature, and realistic ( no xianxia style magic in sight) which I personally enjoyed for a change, but there are moments when you 'remember' that you are watching fiction - the fake blood used is not the best, very obvious ( more like unedible cherry sauce), whenever the characters display their frustration or anger, I noticed the camera zoomed in on their clenched fists..nearly EVERY time and.......WHY?! It did start to annoy me the more I observed a pattern of that as the plot and characters developed! Even the actor who played one of the 'revealed' villains, Lord Pingnan , had more than a few scenes with exaggerated facial expressions more suited to a pantomime, but he did get better towards the end!
As for the main characters, both the male and female lead are not innocent, but 2 opposing magnets that match each other in manipulation, ruthlessly know one another's flaws and darkest secrets, and there are times where you might find it challenging to 'root for' or really support them as some of their choices and decisions are greyish at best, but equally display a level of shrewdness that even a leading anti-hero may not show!
It would have been really cool to see the 2nd male lead ( a rising military general- like character) and his father have more visibility and screen time in the middle episodes - without spoiling what happens to them, but there are approx. 5 episodes ( can't remember exactly) where they don't appear.....at all! I know why, but I would have liked to see the 2nd male lead get shipped with another female character and what both he and his father do.....with their unfortunate yet temporary fall from grace ( I'll leave it at that!)
I don't know if this was intended but even the name of the palace in the story, Kunning = is very close to the word 'cunning' in English, so maybe that can be a hint to international/ English speaking audiences about the 'cunningness' that is threaded throughout the drama by several characters, and of course, by the main characters!
Was this review helpful to you?
Contreversial romance dynamic
fl background wasn't described well enough which made the story fall short especially the zhang zhe arc, however I loved the dynamic between fl and ml , i know its not for everyone but I loved it , I also think if they took more time on the romance development it would've made ml seem less creepy. Fl not acknowledging all that ml did for her was really irritating and I hoped that she would've acknowledged that but the story ended as is , either way I enjoyed the drama but you have to stay strong and endure 1-20 before you see things start to piece togetherWas this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A Slow Fall From Grace
Rated= 8 ~ 36.5/50 ~ 7.3Scene // Mermaid getting lost in the Enchanted Forest. Has no clue how to use Merlin's Staff LOL
I thought this show was going to be my first Unicorn rating. But of course, in those last 10 episodes, everything started to fall like the Xue family. For the most part, the entirety of the show is a back and forth between the FL's love interests and the slow death of the Xue family. I mean, they get a few swings in but really not as much as I thought they would, not as much as they should have considering how much of a presence they had.
Plot - The first 10 episodes had a great setting. The Fl grew up in poverty and dreamed of being the empress. She uses all wiles and tricks to get what she wants only for it all to backfire and end with her death. In a world without magic, this is explained by showcasing the title. It's a young author's story who is frustrated with the demands from her publisher and continues her novel as a rewrite. This is how the FL wakes up as her 18 year old self and is given a chance to 'rewrite' her story.
She carries a lot of guilt and sadness for her past behaviour and this haunts her for the most part of the show, trying to give back the positions she stole and right who she wronged. This narrative carries on for the most but slowly starts to change over to our ML as we discover who he really is and what is true motives are.
The hidden plot is basically the Empress Dowager and her brother have been conspiring to get the Xue family onto the throne and bring in a new era. I can't help but feel a little disappointed that with this iron clad presence, they did not have the weight that I thought they would have. I mean they tried but for the most part, Duke Xue was pretty useless and the kids were stupid.
They were stopped at every attempt they made. I guess that makes for easy watching but it got kind of funny after a while, as the whole show had nothing to do with the FL redeeming herself at all, and was just a slow dismantling of the Xue family's supposed power which we didn't really get to see a lot of.
As the the relationship between the FL and her 3 suitors, one was the childhood friend trope, one was what you expect from a romance story and the other was just a messed up person grappling for something sincere, so of course we get the third one.
It didn't really feel anything for the first suitor but loved that he became a handsome young general in the end and I like to think that he ended up with the Princess. I think they would have made a cute pair.
The 2nd one, as much as a prince charming that he was, he didn't suit the FL's personality. He was never seen to be anything other than the proto type of justice and noble character. Having said that, I did like him and didn't think the FL deserved him. Would have been nice to let him move on and show him doing so rather than just being that friend that's pining after another man's wife.
And the 3rd one, our ML, was doing well up until the cave scene. Desperation in your mental illness is one thing but I felt like from then on, this intense, all or nothing character just wasn't done very well. It didn't feel romantic to me. It just felt like a desperate man with severe PTSD begging the FL to stay in his life, no matter how romantic they tried to make it. At times, it even felt abusive but then I don't like being controlled either so I have a hard time imaging a woman like the FL would fall in love with the ML. It would have made more sense to have given stronger hints and scenes of her feelings developing earlier with the ML, or developing sexual tension to help round out the dark and sexy vibe they were going for, but instead they focused on building up the love with suitor no.2 just so she could randomly break up with him because she suddenly thought his mother's death was her fault, again.
Overall, I just don't feel like the relationship between the ML and the FL was well developed enough. Yes, too broken people with traumatic backgrounds falling in love but this just felt like being relentlessly pursued and then suddenly being in love. It was a bit of a failure and as much as I can give credit for getting away with as much of a sex scene as they could, it gave a similar vibe as to when Mr. Gray was popular. Dark and intense love is not abusive, emotional manipulative and controlling. I don't find that sexy at all. The icing on the cake is grabbing her by the throat twice, to force a kiss. Yeah. No. We were crossing into r*pe fantasies at time and that shouldn't be anyone's thing. Yes, I am kink shaming.
It should not be up to the FL to 'save' the ML and be his medicine. When two broken characters come together, you really have to show the understanding and feelings growing between them and I don't feel satisfied with what I saw.
The ML bullying his son at the end just seemed mean spirited with a does of gaslighting.
Acting- Not bad for the most part. Really didn't like how the ML would try to make his voice deeper when he arguing with the FL as if that made him sexier. It sounded a bit silly to me because I could hear how forced it was.
Music- I really loved the soundtrack to this. 'Won't see you in 3 thousand lives' is already on my playlist.
Rewatch - Overall, it was a good watch and I was invested for most of the ride. I guess I could watch it again if the mood takes me.
Was this review helpful to you?
"A Former Empress Rewrites Her Fate in a Gripping Tale of Power, Love, and Redemption
As a fan of historical and palace intrigue dramas, The Story of Kunning Palace was a captivating experience from start to finish. The drama delivers a compelling mix of romance, political struggles, and redemption, making it a standout in the historical C-drama genre.Story & Pacing
The drama follows Jiang Xue Ning, a woman who once sat as empress but met a tragic end. Instead of dying, she gets a second chance at life, waking up in her past before she ever entered the palace. Determined to change her fate, she tries to avoid the power struggles that led to her downfall—but fate is not so easily rewritten.
What makes the story engaging is how Xue Ning navigates her second chance. She’s no longer the naïve, power-hungry girl she once was, but avoiding the past proves to be just as dangerous. The pacing is well-balanced, with enough twists and turns to keep the viewer hooked. The mix of romance, suspense, and court politics is executed beautifully.
Characters & Acting
Bai Lu (as Jiang Xue Ning) absolutely shines in this role. She effortlessly portrays the transformation of a woman burdened by past mistakes but determined to forge a new path. Her chemistry with Zhang Linghe (as Xie Wei) is palpable, adding emotional depth to their interactions. The male lead, Xie Wei, is complex—neither a straightforward hero nor villain—which makes their dynamic all the more compelling.
The supporting characters also add richness to the story, with well-developed personalities and motivations. Whether it’s allies or hidden enemies, each character plays a vital role in shaping Xue Ning’s journey.
Visuals & Production
The cinematography and costume design are absolutely stunning. From the intricate palace settings to the beautifully detailed hanfu, everything feels authentic and visually breathtaking. The drama’s color palette enhances the emotional weight of each scene—whether it’s warm and golden for moments of hope or darker tones during tense palace intrigue.
Music & OST
The soundtrack is another highlight. The opening theme sets the mood perfectly, and the background scores elevate key emotional moments. The music seamlessly blends traditional Chinese elements with modern orchestration, making it both atmospheric and memorable.
Final Thoughts
The Story of Kunning Palace is a must-watch for fans of palace dramas, reincarnation stories, and strong female leads. It offers a gripping plot, brilliant performances, and stunning visuals, making it one of the best historical dramas in recent years.
Was this review helpful to you?
