Story of Kunning Palace (2023)

The most satisfying ending EVER for a historical chinese drama!!!!!

I have watched a lot of historical chinese drama. Almost in all of them, they will closure the drama in like 1 min or so leaving us with so many questions. But ladies and gentleman, this drama has the perfect ending. We got all the characters ending and of course our Main Leads happy ending in DETAILS !!! *chef kiss* PERFECT ENDING. I give this drama a solid 9/10 i would have given it a 10/10 if only they gave us more details of the past life, like her affairs with the MLs, her emotions like why she was so pbssessed with having power and the empress position but most importantly i wanted to know badly the outcome of all the characters in the past life.

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After scheming her way to becoming Empress, Jiang Xuening is forced to take her own life after a coup staged by the equally scheming Xie Wei and her former childhood friend Yan Lin upends the state of Qian. She awakens to find herself back in time before she entered the palace and is determined to change her fate and the fate of others around her. Little does she know that the seemingly treacherous Xie Wei has a painful past and is much more than he seems.

While the setup is nothing new, the drama manages what I feel is a rarity these days in Chinese drama land - sustaining my rapt attention for the full 38 episodes. The script wisely stays focused on the story and characters - balancing the political storylines with the slow burn romance that is allowed to develop organically, without anyone acting out of character just to create a sense of forced drama or romance. The supporting characters are given time to develop as well and actually add to the overall story. They support our male and female lead in their journey of finding their true selves and each other.

What prevents me from giving this a 10 is the often heavy-handedness of the direction - blinding lighting, distracting camerawork and odd framing of shots give an overall unpolished look. There is a tendency to make things a bit over the top, but these are small quibbles and a matter of taste ultimately. The cast overall do a solid job - I am most impressed with Wang Xing Yue. Despite his young age, he is able to hold his own in a very stoic role.

This is a great one to binge and re-watch. It's not meant to be an artsy, profound expose on life, death, fate vs self determination, etc. It's just great fun to watch.

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Perfect drama with lots of interesting plots

BaiLu and zheng linghe both are good looking and great potential to play strong characters. I personally liked BaiLu because she is the one who described her role gracefully. Jiang xiuening who played by BaiLu had so many relationship issues which caused her hell. All of her characters justified very gradually and most importantly her co male artist all of them are so sweet and doing their job greatly. Zhang linghe and BaiLu both have great chemistry which can show off camera.. and yes of course BaiLu always had relationship with her co star so not like they are lovers etc.. I just find them looking great together

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Invicible Love String and Fate

Started with the rebellion under Xie Wei and Yan Lin (Yan Family) during the Shenjie governance, force Jiang Xue Ning as the former empress of the fallen dynasty deciding to suicide. However, JXN got second chance to restart her life and fate from the writer.

Suddenly everything started again at her age of 18. She having the memories of rebellion and every mistakes she once made, trying her best to avoid and fix everything hoping for a different outcome. She was once an arrogant, never looked into a detail but just focused on how to be an "Empress", this time she being a humble one but not dumb fix everything to the origin. Giving back the destiny that once she steal, however everytime fate lead hear getting near to Xie Wei.

In past life, she feels regretful towards Zhang Ze, Yan Lin, and many others. This life she manage to keep her friendship with Yan Lin in a good terms, not betraying him as a friend. Zhang Ze is a man with a word, a man that loyal, a man that once she fallen for but not able to being together, after a long way Zhang Ze finally building a feelings toward JXN, however JXN already gave up and having a special indescribeable fate with Xie Wei

Finally they manage to clean up the dynasty that full with evil, Xue family, and also Pingnan rebel. This time Jiang Xue Ning really able to change destiny, yet building a love relationship with Xie Wei

Well written drama story line, Good OST that suitable with every condition, and Actor who is manage to show their character.

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Cdrama Recommendation for Kdrama Addicts!

This is my first cdrama of Zhanglinghe as the lead. I'm not even a cdrama lover but just got bored one day and ended up seeing a post about red flag male leads on tiktok. I saw the poster and strangely i feel drawn to it. Among all the dramas posted there, this is the one that i gave a shot. I said to myself let's just try 1 ep and see if its good. But after first ep i started downloading all remaining eps and binge watched it for 3 days. I got really invested in the story and the characters, especially the leads xue ning and xie wei. This is the first after a very long time that I've gotten so obsessed with a drama. Xie Wei for me really stood a lot! They say he's a red flag but after watching it, he's definitely a black flag. He's character is so intelligent and cunning that he always have plans for everything. Xue ning is also smart and they are perfect for each other. I also like Zhang Zhe from the way he looks at Xue Ning, its a very genuine and warm love. Xie Wei on the other hand looks at Xue Ning with a longing expression and sometimes a bit possesive but he also has his warm and caring side. I like the reverse harem theme of the show and i like that it didn't focus that much on it and mainly on the political aspects of the show. The show is definitely a must watch!

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Loved this so much

This is definitely one of my highest rated dramas, and this was probably a curse because I started watching it exactly during exam season, oh well... Nonetheless, I found every episode intriguing and enjoyable. The plot is interesting: the power struggle is understandable and not overly confusing and unnecessary like in many other dramas, instead in this one it was quite fun to watch. Ning'er is a strong character, and although she appears to be very confident after having died in her first life and entered her second one, you can still see that she also brings a lot of emotional baggage with her, and she is not indestructable as often seen in other stories that have a rebirth trope. I found the relationships in the story quite beautiful and it was nice to see that there was trust between characters, such as between Xie Wei and the emperor (I think often there is always some sort of backstabbing, which becomes tiring to watch). I loved how not everything went well even though Ning'er and Xie Wei are smart, like things should go wrong but not too wrong either (as I often see in xianxia dramas, which drives me a bit crazy sometimes ngl). Xie Wei is soooo oh my god, not a good person in many ways, but he still took my breath away. And Zhang Linghe's acting was for me by far the best in this drama, better than in My Journey to You or in Love Between Fairy and Devil. Lu Bai is also a very good actress, her dramas tend to be good as well.

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Intriguing plot with a mediorce romance

This is one of the few times where i was more invested in the story rather than the romance. I liked jiang xuening, i liked xie wei, as separate characters, not together.
It doesn't help that zhang linghe is just not as good of an actor as bai lu, like he did well mostly but any time the story demanded more emotion he failed to deliver
also this drama was released in 2023, why do we still have the forced kiss trope, it was really horrible to watch. i couldn't believe that ning'er would actually like him either, it felt abrubt and all over the place.
but the actual core story? was pretty interesting
i honestly liked the other mls more too, both zhang zhe and yan lin were pretty great(but also not suitable for ning'er as well, just in a different way)
i was hooked into it at the time but thinking back there were many weird elements

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Far Exceeded Expectations

Going into this drama, I expected it to be good because of Bai Lu. She never disappoints. I only remember the ML in LBFAD, and thought his performance was good. I just never thought this pairing would be as hot as it was.

The opening scene was like sitting at the top of a roller coaster and then the rest was a wild ride of intrigue and passion. What made this so good was the writing, the acting, and the cast. What makes or breaks a drama for me is how the actors portray their roles. I MUST have three dimensional characters in order to keep watching, even if the pacing is slow. Everyone does an excellent job at eliciting emotions here: regret, sadness, happiness, jealousy, anger, despair, and passion.

Speaking of characters, the FL has three, THREE ML's to contend with. Goodness! And they all did such a great job of showing why they loved the FL.

The scenes were beautifully done. I also liked the subtle humor sprinkled throughout and the natural chemistry between the leads. I became a bigger fan of Bai Lu and an even bigger fan of Zhang Ling He.

**I watched this first by myself, and then with my twin who has never watched a Chinese drama. She just happened to watch the kissing scene on YT, and then begged me to watch it with her. She LOVED this! It was great watching this once. It was even better binge watching this with my best friend.

An absolute must watch (alone or with a friend). 10/10.

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Excellent balance from the best historical drama in 2023

This drama grew on me from an 8 to a 10. First I wanted to give this drama a 9 after finishing because I used two days of wondering about what really happened in our character's first life and what Xie Wei was thinking at that time. But then I decided that it was a good thing that I don’t know, the guessing makes it more interesting and the characters become more complex.

This drama has so many great things going on. The actors does an impeccable job. Bai Lu is very good at this sort of light comedic roles and Zhang Linghe surprised me as a very good morally grey male lead. I need to see him as a fully bloomed villain in the future.

The foundation of this story is interesting because it doesn’t tell the viewer everything we want to know. The flashbacks are balanced and the tempo of the story is good. Some parts of the story is predictable and tropey but not to an extent that it is bad in any way. Somehow they manage to give everything a fresh feel, perhaps because our characters aren’t always good persons. They make mistakes but they deal with it. The story is easy to follow without being simple.

The word that keeps coming back to me is “balanced”. A bit of love, mystery, tropes, fighting scenes and palace intrigue. At first I was a bit disappointed by the main leads inability to defend themselves but later I found that refreshing.

It is the combination of not knowing everything from their first life, with the fresh take on tropes and the high quality acting, costume and art direction that makes this drama worth a 10. I can’t find anything to critique. The more I think about this drama the more I like it. This 10 grew on me.

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From story of BORING palace to story of LOVING palace

Well !! I would have rated this show a solid 9 if it weren't for the boring first half. No doubt the story is good, but the way it is written failed to impress me ... The issue is stated on the screen pretty much within the first two episodes after that they are just beating around the bush with absolutely no rigid substance being added the development of the story . Honestly I thought of dropping this drama a multiple times but I like bailu a lot so I kept going.

Around Episode 18 the plot picks up some momentum and remains the same till the end.

There is nothing much to pin point about the casting as all actors including leads are veterans and they known how to deliver the best.previously I wasn't much of a fan of the ML actor but he was amazing in his role here ..I guess I like him now ❤️❤️❤️ ok might as well check his other shows.

Ost was just so-so.
Rewatch value ..well that's subjective.. If i were ever to watch it again I might skip ep 3-17

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I’d like to say that the story was worth it, but i can't.

To be honest, I hate dramas where an author appears talking to the editor at the beginning and then we’re shown the story they’re writing. In my opinion, this makes the drama lose depth and creates emotional distance from the plot. I should’ve stopped watching at that point, so it was my mistake to continue.

If I had to rate this drama based on the character Jiang Xuening, it would be a 0. This character was incredibly poorly written. How can someone who knows the future and wants to change it do absolutely nothing relevant to achieve that goal? I remember when the Yan family was exiled, she said, “Despite everything I did, I still couldn’t change fate.” I laughed so hard when she said that, thinking: What exactly did you do that was supposed to change fate? Throughout the entire story, she depends on the male lead, Xie Wei, and a guy she *knew* would eventually become a traitor (Zhou Yinzhi). She spends the whole drama lamenting that she can’t change fate—maybe she’s just extremely incompetent and ineffective. If it weren’t for the ML, she would’ve died a hundred times, even with her knowledge of the future.

The romance is disappointing because, for the first 30 episodes, she’s tangled in plot after plot and a romance (if we can even call it that, since not even she seemed to know if she liked him or not) with Zhang Zhe. Only after episode 30 does the romance with the ML start to be explored more directly, and she clearly doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. But out of nowhere, she says she loves him. Excuse me? When did that happen? Did I miss an episode where her feelings for him were actually developed? There’s no chemistry on her part—absolutely nothing. It just seems like she accepted his devotion to her and called it love.

The story also falls short when it comes to her past life. How did she become an empress with such limited brainpower? The empress dowager didn’t stop her? She held that position for so long and never received the poisoned wine, even though the Xue family’s power continued for many years after her coronation.

You Fangyin’s death was another stupidity. Why did she grab Zhou Yinzhi when he had a sword in his hand? She said she wanted to stop him, but was that really her job? If you’re not capable of doing anything against someone with a sword, aren’t you just asking to die? And if Zhou Yinzhi escaped, so what? We’re not talking about a major villain like Duke Xue or King Pingnan. Was it really worth gambling your life to grab the leg of a small fry like Zhou Yinzhi? Chinese dramas make me furious with situations like this—they just wanted to kill off the character and came up with a stupid excuse to do it.

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Very Entertaining Story

This one features a FL who goes back in time to fix mistakes made the first time. The supernatural element is gotten around by the censors by having this actually be a story that the author is creating. This has modern scenes framing the story, but these modern scenes are short and add nothing to the plot.

The FL is capable and strong. Because she lived this life before, she is able to use her knowledge to change or attempt to change fate from the first time. It’s interesting because in changing circumstances, things don’t play out like she expects. We get just enough glimpses of her past life to see the difference but we aren’t overburdened by flashes of the past.

If you don’t like a dark hero, then this is not the drama for you. Xie Wei is not your typical Chinese drama lead. He is scheming, ruthless, and legitimately mentally unwell. The translation was schizophrenia but his illness get closer to PTSD. Nevertheless, though he is super intelligent, he is hampered by this fugue state he gets in when it snows. I felt the actor playing him overdid it with the crazy eyes at times. But overall his character was interesting and intriguing.

The romance is slow burn. It doesn’t really ramp up until the last 10 episodes or so, though there is enough of it throughout the show to keep even romance fans like myself interested. Highly recommended.

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