Love Like the Galaxy: Part 2

Amazing finish. Fantastic Series

Hi all, apologies for a late review, I actually have finished this quite a while ago but too many things going on.

Story: Carrying on from Season 1, this is an amazing story with plot twists and turns, its amazing how they have built the suspense of the story right up to the crucial points and just went you believe its over, guess what more comes your way. The ML/FL relationship dynamics is done really well. I would love to see ML/FL be in a modern series one day as I believe the chemistry is amazing.

Acting: Amazing chemistry all around, great acting from not just the ML/FL, everyone involved played their parts well, the villain's and other side characters played their parts amazingly.

Music: Same as season 1 no changes there

Rewatch: Absolutely without a doubt. I think I have watched this series in total approx 3 times now and some selected episodes a few more times as trying to understand the dialogue more as I rely on subs to understand what is happening. Overall a fantastic series and cannot wait for more like this in the future.

Overall: Amazing series, definitely one of the best series in 2022 by far.

Cheers,

Shing

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In the domestic sphere it rocks, in the palace environment it rolls - right under the bus…

I watched both parts together and will only write one review. The score I gave to part one is 8.5, but I can’t get anywhere near that for the second half.

Let’s start with the positives, because there are a plenty of them. The so-called “good” characters are both varied and interesting and some of them have interesting character arcs. However, the “bad” characters were unfortunately all cookies cut from the same bitter, extreme and bitchy dough and were interchangeable and forgettable, which rendered parts of the rambling plot incomprehensible. But let’s not get to that yet. Continuing on the good things.

The wonderful humour in part one that was such a delight. The writer excelled in bringing out the nuances within the everyday interactions. As social commentary it is second only to “Heard it Through the Grapevine”. It provided a balance and a foil for the more serious scenes. But alas, where was it in the second half. It died a death along with numberless others, who were victim to the bloodlust of Zi Sheng. In the second half, it felt as though the writer was really our of their depth.

There were some excellent performances from a very large cast. In particular I would single out, Zeng Li as Xiao Yuan Yi (Shao Shang’s mother), Cao Xi Wen as Consort Yue Fei, and in the latter stages Leo Wu stepped up as Zi Sheng.

I liked the costuming for the show. Particularly the military uniforms. And the fact that the early period meant simpler fabrics and elegant lines. The setting too was a great backdrop for the drama, with its huge barren landscapes and harsh realities, in which small oceans of comfort and civilisation nestled.

Okay, I’m going to leave the good there. There’s plenty of reviews that drool over Leo Wu on a horse and such similar attractions. Let’s get out the scalpel.

Save the best to last. There’s a reason this is said. It’s great advice: build, retreat, build higher, rest, build higher, hold, then run vertically to your epic killer blow. Unfortunately the second part of this drama completed the whole course in the first third and then had nowhere to go except repeat until the end. That’s partly the difficulty of writing a 40-hour drama. That’s a lot of story to weave together using original ideas. Okay, to be fair, they split it down the middle, so 20 hours of drama. But, how many times can you watch Leo Wu leap from his horse to save the day/girl at the last possible second. Once at the end would have been impressive, twice would be forgivable, three times unfortunate, but five-plus times? Tbh you’ve seen it all before and there’s no tension only predictability. It was a cast of thousands and fairly minor characters kept blowing up along the route to provide a foil and yet another opportunity for our knight in leather armour. There were so many of them, that I had difficulty remembering what their story arc had been (twenty episodes earlier) that was causing them to seek revenge at this point.

This is a drama built on backstory. Now backstory is never easy to handle. You are in with a chance if it’s the backstory of one of the main characters. But when you are asked to get invested in the backstory of people who either don’t appear in the drama, or who are minor characters overall, and on top of that, you are not even “shown” it, but “told” it in unlikely monologues and stilted “conversations”, then you’re really wading through porridge. Not only was it confusing just to have names without faces half the time, but it was boring too. There was nothing much to generate emotional investment and Leo Wu was on his own boiling up all that vitriol. Admittedly, the scenes when it spilled out were chillingly good and really showcased his acting chops.

To sum up plot-wise, as this rambling, fragmented plot played out I felt incredulity leaking from the pot until I was up to my knees in it, then at some point the swirling waters closed over my nose and mouth and I had to force myself to float on it to the end as I was in danger of drowning in the underground tomb and burning village.

In terms of the characters, the arcs for the male and female leads were largely unconvincing. I was willing to go along with Shao Shang learning to trust Zi Sheng, although the set-up for the punishment scene that clinched the deal was pretty unbelievable. But the changes in the later stages in their relationship had no real credible basis to them. Tbh, the character of Zi Sheng had so many red flags that to me he was unredeemable. The writer was trying to meld together two stubborn and flawed characters by melting them in the forge of saccharine romance tropes. It didn’t work.

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DON'T BE AFRAID... HURT ME MORE!

The second part is where things go downhill... I know Ling Buyi and Shaoshang's relationship wouldn't go as smoothly but I didn't expect their story would hurt me this much. The development of their relationship was incredibly well-written. They went step by step from getting to know each other's traits, meeting their family, solving problems, and even chasing out problem makers from the palace together.

Shaoshang's character development was one of the things I liked the most about this drama, I cried a lot watching her grow from a silly troublemaker to a virtuous lady that solves problems. Although we were driven away from our beloved characters from part one (A-yao, Shaoshang's family, Qiqi, etc), we were also introduced to the Crown Family which has diverse personalities--but the Empress and Consort Yue are two amazing characters you wouldn't able to hate! They both played a great role in Shaoshang's fate. What was quite surprising for me was how doting the Emperor was to Shaoshang. It was really unbelievable for a ruler to be that kind and supportive of someone outside the crown family, but thanks to that oddity, our Shaoshang was able to achieve most of her dreams. Honestly, there are so many good things about this drama that I couldn't mention one by one.

The drama has many positive aspects, but I also love the angst. I love Ling Buyi was the key to the twist. His background was known very well to the world but in fact, there were things that kept hidden for his own good. What I hate--but I also love--was the miscommunication between the two leads who just happened to warm up to each other. This part really drove me crazy, I was in a painful state about whether to continue the remaining episodes or not. But as the story goes on, it brought them to a brighter end. The last episode gave me shivers... it was really the best closing for this drama!!

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Nothing progressed from part 1

I've wrote my review for part 1 and was expecting a lot more in terms of character development in the later half but... none. We are already left with about 10 episodes or so, i wouldn't be expecting the show to have huge turns, even so it will be too late. First off, i really like ZLS as an actress, but her character as Niao Niao is beyond annoying and boring. As much as we do not see her growth in part 1, she became to more self conflicting in the 2nd part. For how much she always wanted "peace", she clearly does not bring any peace around her for the mess she created. But ofcourse with the addition of those jealous and mean princesses around to bring her down. She is also not smart enough to clear her own mess. We see ML being hero to save her from the shit hole only to get scolded by her when asked to refrain herself. Here, we see how her character self conflicted with what she wanted. I get where Niao Niao is coming from, i really get it but it's time to move on and see her grow from there, why are we still stucked at this. Moving on to romance, it's very promising to see her realise what is love but nope. Her sudden realisation that she love ML didn't make me feel anything.. it felt as though she said it just because the ML love her. Chemistry isn't great either; i choose to believe that it's their character that is playing a part not their acting. I am starting to get really bored.. and have to FF a lot, however there are still other interesting characters to watch (other than MLFL).

EDIT: i cannot believe the most development i see in this whole show is actually Lou Yao and his wife. In the first half, the show spent quite a number of episodes on Lou Yao and FL which seems to be unnecessary.. now that i finished it. It made no impact on FL or the entire story. Up till the very end, i still couldn't feel ML's character at all.

In conclusion, i was expecting a lot more from part 1 but i am disappointed to see Niao Niao still the same, and it sucks because the whole show's main focus IS Niao Niao. Even ML doesn't have as much scenes/story time as her. Honestly her role at Who Rules The World is so much better.

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By far the best drama this year!

This is a must watch! Excellent excellent in every way.

The story/plot is excellent and not too tropey. The pacing is excellent! Every scene has its purpose and there are no fillers. I haven't fast forwarded even one scene. I've actually gone back to rewatch scenes if I look away to do something. I usually watch dramas in the background while doing chores but this drama is so good, I actually save it for times I can solely focus on it! Acting is excellent all around from the leads, to the supporting characters. Chemistry between Zhao Lusi and Wu Lei is off the charts! They are so compatible in acting, looks and age! Every scene they have together is special. Cinematography is excellent! This director is so good at making each shot purposeful. The music is perfectly enhances the mood of scenes without being a distraction. The characters (even the side characters) are all very well written and so many are likeable even with their flaws.

Must watch!

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Definitely the better half

OVERALL
This review is for the drama overall, though I will say a few things about part 2 specifically. In general, it's well worth the watch, though it's definitely NOT a perfect drama. Watch it if 1) you're looking for cute, PG-rated romance, 2) you like historical dramas with serious vibes but also the occasional fun scenes, 3) you want to see some adventure and political intrigue. Reconsider if 1) you're looking for a mature love story with lots of skinship, 2) you hate draggy and repetitive plot elements.

THE STORY
I honestly feel like Love Like the Galaxy has a bit of an identity crisis. It wants to be a light, fluffy idol romance, but it also wants to be a deep, heavy historical. The result? It ends up failing both and being stuck in between. The romance is okay but not swoon-worthy because the drama does not spend enough time on it so the intensity of the leads' love is unconvincing. The political intrigues and adventures are okay but not super engaging because the drama does not spend enough time on them and most of them feel random. Don't get me wrong, I binged the start of this drama and died weekly as I waited for the remaining episodes. The drama's good. But all the time, I just kind of felt like it could have been better?

The best of Love Like the Galaxy is the cinematography (mature vibes of sets and filters), the super fun and wholesome royal trio (emperor-empress-concubine), and a few attempts at breaking the mold (eg. unconventional second male leads, mother-daughter relationship growth). The main leads have depth, each with traumas to overcome, so it's also easy to like and care for them. Their love story is a slow burn, which is more realistic and totally my style. The conflicts (at least, between the leads) are also real and atypical. And in Part 2, the stakes keep on getting higher, with more danger and more adventures, which makes the plot thrilling.

But...

The drama has too many unnecessary characters and scenes. After watching it all the way to the end, there are SO many parts focusing on secondary characters that I feel could have been cut and replaced by more of the main leads together or more political intrigue (especially in Part 1). The drama also has too many parts that are essentially the same (eg. how many crazy, psychopathic women do you need in one drama? how many times is are the main leads going to struggle over the same problem?). And as if that wasn't enough, Love Like the Galaxy is FILLED with slow-mo, often for no reason haha It gets really frustrating because they could have better used their time. It's just lazy writing, really. Oh, and I also wasn't a fan of the way the romantic scenes were put together in this drama. Many turned out too cringe, it was like watching a Disney film haha

THE ACTING
I will start by saying I like Leo Wu and Zhao Lusi. I do. And now I will say that, in all honesty, I was not impressed by Leo's acting. I still like him though; he's young, he'll probably get better. With Zhao Lusi the opposite happened. I thought she was okay after seeing her in Long Ballad and Romance of Tiger and Rose, but I was surprised by how good she was with emotional scenes in Part 2. I really hope to see her in more strong and serious roles because she definitely has potential for more than the ditsy/funny roles she usually plays. Imo, Leo and Lusi did not have great chemistry together, but I think they did the job nicely. The rest of the cast was good enough, especially the older cast. Loved my royal trio!

THE MUSIC
I loved the instrumental tracks (they sometimes reminded me of Nirvana in Fire and Story of Minglan)! I just hated how cringe the BGM got whenever you had a romantic scene.

REWATCH VALUE
High. I'll rewatch for sure, but with some skipping!

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I'm biased, so Imma say its basically perfect.

Everything about this drama is on another level.
Writing, cinematography, costumes, plot, acting, action, and supporting characters?!?!
It was all so enjoyable. I inhaled the show like oxygen and finished 56 episode in 4 days.
For ONCE I didn't feel as if it were dragging and would have liked it to be longer so we could get more of a "fairy tale" ending, but its still fine.

The only bad points are repetitive plot points, and the show never really making you fear that anything bad will happen? Its hard to explain but when you see how the emperor acts youll know.

Its SO refreshing! Its also strange.

This couple and story has me in a chokehold and I don't wanna leave it behind.

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Something new

This drama truly has been one of a kind. Though I have seen very good historical c-dramas before, 'Love like the Galaxy' stands out.

The direction and music score in this drama were so beautiful, it took my breath away. Both beautifully highlighted the characters and the actors portraying them, making their talent shine. I especially loved the emotionally charged scenes such as Zhisheng's revenge and the Empress last moment. It's the first time I have seen editing like that in a c-drama. It almost felt like I was watching an musical, how gracefully it all was shown.

Lusi I've always loved, while Leo's acting has gotten even more solid after I last saw him in 'The Long Ballad'. I am deeply impressed by his talent and range while portraying this character . Best actor award, I do believe he truly deserves it.
ShaoShang and Zhisheng's confessions and kiss at the end, felt like a modern wedding with personal vows. Her smiling at her parent after the kiss and the rest of the family coming out, felt like a celebration after they've officially become husband and wife. It's so heartwarming to see these two lonely children, finally being surrounded with people who love them. To me, it was a perfect ending.

I commend the director, the actors and the entire production for creating such a masterpiece. Every little detail was done absolute to perfection. Though I do have minor criticisms, this drama was perfect. I see this drama going down in the books for sure!

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Best Costume Drama of 2022!

I am so sad that it ended. I honestly could use another 30 ep of this.

Sure the drama started out with all the excessive ladies gossiping & doing evil things trying to get the ONLY bachelor in town but aside that minor flaw the story overall was executed close to perfection.

Why the perfect 10
1. ML/FL amazing chemistry. I've seen every Rosy drama but this pairing with Leo Wu was perfect. Leo Wu is just a talented actor since a baby.
2. Supporting cast. There were so many supporting characters that I equally loved in this drama notably:
- 2 Generals by ML for comic relief.
- Mom and Dad of FL. Dad is so funny and the mom's facial expressions always on point. I actually loved her character
- The Emperor and the 2 wives. The emperor especially was entertaining.
- Brother / besties of FL
- 2nd ML , 3rd ML (Yuan Shen) started out annoyingly funny then through character development became a worthy 2nd/3rd lead.
The whole cast was incredible.
3. Story . On the surface it's about love and revenge. However it's got:
-Plot twists. Not overly complicated. Not overly outrageous
- Best character development of main and supporting cast. Shao Shang started as a playful 15 year old. She went through varies struggles to learn about herself and the meaning of true love.
- Family dynamics, relationships between friends, family members
- Strong female characters
4. Beautiful costume, cinematography & music provided that dream land feel.
5. Rewatch Value. I already rewatched 3x.
6. Happy Drama overall. Not like traditional dramas where every character dies because let's face it, SAD endings sucks.
7. Ending of every episodes. Actors playing some games.
8. No cheesy voice dubbing. Unless it's due to actors having thick accents then I would always like to hear their own voices.

Sadly I really felt I want more in the ending not necessary story continuation but more of grand happy ending scene.

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Epic, phenomenal, excellent drama. ❤️ Leo Wu

The drama is phenomenal every artistes did awesome job, love the addition of some comedy scenes in the drama. I don’t know if everyone that enjoy this drama have finish or not so I’m not gonna say who is in it or what they said but the ending well before the ending those two scenes were 😁 it was really funny just writing this I’m laughing 😁. Leo Wu portrayed lingbuyi / ling zisheng Perfectly 100% ❤️ his acting skills went above and beyond even higher then his supporting role in nirvana in fire he did awesome in that role too this drama is one of my favourites is a classic to me. He surprised with this role I was scare of him a couple of times(his glare, how he kills/torture his enemies in the prison, his present for the fifth princess was …..) ( he is so cruel to his enemies, show emotions only to css, and only smiles when he is with css). I enjoy watching all the cast, zisheng’s two subordinates were a delightful to watch ah fei is funny.

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a bunch of short clip

maybe those who feel this drama is good, just because of the romance, those who are satisfied with a little romance , so if someone gives a bad rating they will be judged, maybe there are some scenes that make me touched, and sometimes comedy but most of them feel very lame and the romance sometimes is weird


bad editing and bad scene viewing, jumping scene(not complete showing the useful scene,skip and skip)

from the beginning of these 56 episodes, can this be called a drama? I think this is a bunch of short,,, if in Kdrama it's called "special episodes"
why?
since the beginning of the drama, every time they want to do an action, there is see no action, only showing the result


I've never read the novel, but I'm sure the novel has alot of seasons, but in my opinion the scriptwriter is not good at choosing and sorting out what scenes are important so that from the beginning to the end the drama only show a short part and then proceeds to other scenes, too many unnecessary scenes. makes the first 22 episodes feel very long and unimportant,, in part 2, I thought it was getting better, but it didn't, the same misunderstanding happen again and again, in the first 8 episodes there had been about 3/4 times the argue between FL & ML,, character of FL which in part 1 really like, makes me hate it

they focus too much on the FL&ML scene so that they forget about other SUPPORT COUPLES, while the FL&ML romance is very long & very slow burning (FL & ML love story only starts at the end of part 1, and even in part still in the stage FL not have good feeling for ML) and makes the other couple not have enough scenes, and support couples together are very unreasonable, there is no obvious romance between them but directly together, waste of using cast, even though 56 episodes is enough to make the story very very clear plot and help some of the support cast develop the acting for newbie


the unstable voice made me keep adjusting the volume of the drama while watching, because there was no dubbing, when the cast spoke their mouths seemed to be gargling, if there were no Chinese subtitles maybe I really didn't know what they were talking about ,especially the words and language they use very rarely, even though I know chinese, still feels very unfamiliar



a crazy part like short clip and ridiculous scene (just a part, because too much)
1. ep 12, the medic said the arrow's head only appeared slightly on the surface of the body, if you want to take the arrow out, you have to cut the wound, but the medic is not good at sewing, shaoshang use a string, does it make sense? Even hard objects are difficult to put into a wound, but a string?, even though it is the strongest string, its call strong, because not easily broken by sharp objects, and the arrow's head has a sharp side, pulling the arrowhead with a string is like slicing a wound! does this action not need to stitch the wound?

2. ep 15 ,why they suddenly talking about huangpuyi?when huangpuyi send the cart for 3rd aunt?
3. suddenly shaoshang's father was said to be rebellious, during episode 46 I thought there was a scene helping his father, but it's been 5 days, are you serious?!
4. ep 44, shaoshang went tongniu to save her father, and to meet someone in prison, she intentionally stole 2 bread, how she sure that she is who is just a petty thief that stole bread, will be locked up together with important criminals?
5. little yue masquis said , miasma is not toxic, but why do the pengukun still get side effects? and suffering asthma?


大母,granny
大父， grandpa
君姑,mother in law
君舅,father in law
阿父，father
阿母,mother
君公，how to called male?
女君，how to called female?
舅父，uncle from mother
舅母，uncle's wife from mother
姑父,aunt's husband from father
姑母，father's sister
伯父,uncle, father's elder brother
伯母,uncle's wife from father's elder brother
叔父，uncle, father's younger brother
叔母, uncle's wife from father's younger brother
姒妇 ，brother's wife , sister in law
阿紫/阿姐 a zi ，sister

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