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An Unforgettable Story
* THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS! *I initially started this drama because I wanted to watch more of ZLS work! I started Hidden Love first, but dropped it because I personally didn't enjoy it. I started this drama and I am so glad I did.
This was an unforgettable story. I enjoyed every minute and watched all 56 episodes without skipping. Each and every actor/actress played their role amazingly. The Emperor was one of my absolute favorite characters. Zicheng was such a stoic, devoted, brutal character - just wow! Niao Niao was funny, clever and strong.
This drama has it all for me.
- Great story
- Amazing talented actors/actresses
- Made me laugh and cry
- Great character development
- Slow burn
- Action!!! (Honestly one of my favorite scenes was when Zicheng killed his Uncle - holy moly)
- ML is totally devoted and won't let any other girl in his way
My only complaint is that we never got the wedding scene we deserved! I think the ending was a bit rushed and honestly a few more episodes would have been nice to tie the story all together. But a happy ending nonetheless.
A must watch! Quite possibly the best drama I have ever watched!
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One of the best historical drama. Perfect combination of script, director, and actors.
I watched this drama because of the main actor Leo Wu, whom I saw in another drama and I was very moved by his performance. I wanted to see how she does in other dramas and I was not disappointed!This drama is actually complete in every way:
the cinematography - which was very good - the camera manipulation - the slow, steady movement of the camera and showing the emotions of the main characters was amazing!
Indeed, the director went to great lengths to recreate the atmosphere of the era, taking care of the details, from the costumes, the girls' hairstyles, to the scenography - great!
Casting - very good. Virtually everyone did their job. However, I personally do not like the actress Zhaoo Lu Si, whom so many adore. I watched several series with her and she plays very similarly everywhere, she is too childish for me, although funny and intelligent, but for me she lacks femininity, that something that at the end of the development of each character she plays, what should mature in her is a woman about mature emotions... I don't see it in this actress's game, she's like a spoiled kid... and romantic scenes with her participation are directed with a great distance to the partner... those kisses that should be engaged as the main characters' feelings develop, are the kisses of a 5-year-old child...it spoils these romantic moments. I've never seen this actress have more involved kissing scenes with the main characters ... I don't know if it's the fault of the script, the director or the actress herself, who has some restrictions in the contract about these scenes ...
I liked all the characters of the CSS family, even the annoying grandmother who was obnoxious at first, but in the end it turned out that she is not so bad and cares a lot about all her family members. I must also admit that the character of the emperor, who was very involved in the affairs of LBY and was a very positive character in the whole story, was presented very nicely. Also interesting characters of Empress Xuan and Consort Yue - for the first time I saw in the drama that both wives do not compete with each other, they do not fight, on the contrary, they support each other like sisters, which was great to see. They also did not compete when it came to children, and even the empress was objectively able to admit that her son with his character was not suitable for the future emperor. That's an impressive stance. I liked these two emperor's wives very much.
The opposite were the daughters of the emperor, generally these intrigues of the fair sex were unbearable. These young princesses were always competitive and intrigued - they had nothing better to do. Fortunately, the parents of the emperor and empress and consort did not accept these girls' behavior and rebuked them.
In general, in the Part2, I think that the revenge factor was thrown in again at the end, especially since the main characters were separated for 5 years and it wasn't really shown how they get back together... how CSS finally decides to forgive LBY - here's the scene in the last episode when she thought that he died and she would never see him again and in fact it was the only moment when she realized that she loved him .... and that's it ... you could safely throw away these unnecessary threads of revenge in the end, and focus on the close-up of the main characters of CSS and LBY... At the end of the last episode, they focused on a long scene of the CSS family, and you could not waste this time and show a shot of CSS and LBY's wedding, which scene was missing so much and I was waiting for this finale with wedding for so many episodes, and here the director came up with a pasta-like I'm dying with my family and only verbal information spoken by the emperor that there will be a wedding without his participation .... pointless, that's why I lower the plot to 8.5! I hope they can do an extra twist with that wedding scene!!!
In general, the best character for me was LBY - brilliantly played by Leo Wu - a complex character of an intelligent general whose traumatic childhood experiences made him cold, secretive, distrustful, eager for revenge, but with his heart in the right place, especially in relation to CSS., for whom he changes dramatically by showing love, tenderness, passion, infinite patience and indulgence of her, forgives her every time for her mischief. LBY wanted revenge for killing his family and didn't assume he would fall in love in the meantime and that it would be that young 15 year old CSS girl. However, he fell in love, and from now on he had difficulty balancing love and the pursuit of revenge. In the end, he chooses to take revenge on his "alleged father" or rather uncle and does a terrible carnage - this scene was hard to watch and he sacrifices his love of CSS. He knew that CSS was most afraid of being abandoned by his loved ones and "betrayal", he knew that he would be forgiven, but he chose revenge ... only in exile he realized that it was the wrong choice - he alluded to in the last episode in an interview with CSS. For me, the role was brilliantly played and these hot emotions in the LBY and CSS scenes, including in the first part when she pulled the arrowhead out of LBY's body and their first closeness, when LBY zooms in on his face staring at CSS - great.
CSS as the main character in Part 1 was empathetic and likeable. Shaoshang of Part 2 is immature and frustrating to the point of being dislikeable, but it was supposed to be like that, I suppose. However, I couldn't stand her stubbornness, which stayed until the very end of the series, even though it had been 5 years since the breakup with LBY and she was almost 21 years old, she still had this anger towards LBY and his "betrayal" and digested it constantly without sense not being able to forgive.... the scene when after the death of the empress Xuan they made the empress' favorite juice and talked about the future, when the CSS stated that she was going her own way without him, it was heartbreaking... how can you continue to be so stubborn and anger..she didn't give him a chance, even though he asked her for forgiveness...horrible! He had to almost lose his life again for her to get the hang of it and understand that she couldn't live without him... so here I missed the development of this character... after so many years she should mature and not be guided by anger, stubbornness...
What I really liked about this drama was the very nicely intertwined humorous and comic threads... and especially one scene when LBY, in love, decided to become friends with the CSS family and one day he did exercises for them in the yard - I just cried laughing at the the sight of the CSS siblings and the servants exercising with weights... their faces and eyesight... it was not proper to refuse them, so they gave in to these exercises, which turned out to be very demanding - great scene!
The side characters are well developed, bringing both comic relief.
Rewatching value - 10 ! I already rewatched the first and second season. I recommend it - you have to watch it.
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this is probably the longest drama ive ever watched and the fact i watched it on a total whim after seeing some humor edits on yt.
there is really no way i could sum up the whole series in a few lines cuz 56 episodes was a lot and i assure u none of them were fillers. every episode had its purpose and even tho it might seem a bit overwhelming to watch all of that it is all so worth it
lets start with the characters. i watched the whole drama for 2 weeks. at first i was determined to finish it in a few days but the number of episodes overwhelmed me and i dragged it around lmao. i still remember vividly the first few episodes. ling buyi and cheng shaoshang meeting for the first time, them starting on a rough path which gradually led to zisheng noticing shaoshang everywhere if she is in close proximity and that evolving to him going everywhere to protect her. their relationship was so pure and full of heartful moments. they might not have been intimate but really everything they went through together put them above everyone else. im not even bluffing i could feel like im growing with them throughout the drama it was so slow paced and their oove was portrayed as such a warm and lovely feeling
my other fav characters include yuan shen, the empress, empress and concubine yue. ugh i love the rulers' trio sm. all 3 of them have their own virtues and talents which led them to be he most powerful trio ugh i loved them so so much. its all thanks to the emperor and empress that shaoshang and zisheng grew up to be so sensible and caring for their surroundings. concubine yue was one of my absolute favs cuz she roasts people day and night like its her side job and we love her for that (she isnt rude she just pricks people with the right words at the right moment and ofc to people who deserve it) the relation between the empress and concubine was also divine. time and time again we were proven people can co-exist if they are good enough.
yuan shen was also one of my most fav characters. he always had that warm "im gonna protect shaoshang like a brother" aura for me. he might've been in love with her but honestly? he was more like a brother / bsf. he used to talk to her whenever she had worries and they used to fight sm ah ill miss them. u get REALLY attached when its a 56 ep drama lmao
last but not the least the cheng family and ofc yuanyi. i would like to say every mother in this drama got to learn parenting by taking caring of others' kids and every mother had a diff approach. yuanyi was wrong on a lot of accounts but i was glad she actually admitted to where she went wrong and tried to reconcile with shaoshang in the end.
i hated the third prince sm cuz i thought he was a bad person for beating up zisheng until i saw the real scene and realised it was all staged. the third prince had the best character development and honestly i went from extreme hate to extreme love for him he is one of my fav characters now lmao
love like the galaxy is one of a kind. it has just the right amount of drama and all a surplus amount of revenge plot. it has absolutely no unnecessary drama and i love it sm. u really cant go in expecting anything. everything turns out to be opposite of what normally happens in other dramas. i used to think romance of tiger and rose was lusi's best drama but this one changed my mind. idk if its lusi's unmatched chemistry with her leads or what but she always has a way of presenting the best. i really went to watch this show for shaoshang and ended up falling for wu lei no kidding.
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One of the Best!
I have been putting off this title for soo long cuz I didnt quite like Zhao Lusi in The Long Ballad and I didnt think she would make a good main lead. But she definitely proved me wrong in Love Like the Galaxy. I must admit that this show stands almost at par with The Untamed and The Rebel Princess which are in my top favourite list, and her performance here was spectacular.The show opened up with 15yo Cheng Shaoshang - FL - finally reunited with her parents who had left her in her grandmother’s care since birth to go for war. On the way home from where her grandmother made her stay, she met with our ML the 21yo great young general Ling Buyi on the hunt for a criminal, which turned out to be FL’s grand uncle (grandma’s bro). She showed him where she suspected the man to be hiding, which was in a strawpile in front of the small hut she lived in. This is where FL caught ML’s eye. It was like love at first sight, though he had only seen her hand at that time.
When she thought her life would be better now that her parents are home, it turned out to be even worse when her tiger soldier mom could not accept the daughter that she turned out to be - illiterate, brash, full of trickery with a loose mouth of rebuttal. The mom tried to make up for those years she lost of raising and educating FL, but it made FL hate her even more due to the harsh educating method. The mom also openly favoured FL’s cousin who was well-read, gentle, and compassionate. As FL traverse her new life with a full family that she couldn’t seem to fit in, she learned to grow into a mature young lady under the wings of the empress when ML asked the emperor for her hand. ML was the last descendent of the Huo clan, which the emperor was hugely indebted to, thus had ML raised by the Empress. With FL, he too traversed his life to avenge the extermination of his clan while at the same time fighting for the woman whom he loved.
I totally totally love love love this show. I love how they are more focussed on the familial affection than romance between the main leads. Although FL had a hard time bonding with her mom, she was on an extremely good terms with her dad, her 2 brothers (1 was actually her twin), and the demure cousin. There was no sibling rivalry at all despite their 15 year-estrangement, which i totally love. Am so tired of sibling fights, bickering and getting jealous at each other all day long. Its non existence in the Cheng Household is totally heartwarming. The only tension would only come from the mom-daughter banter as FL keep stirring up trouble whenever she got criticized by her mom and bullied by other girls outside.
I totally get the FL character. Imagine the emptiness in her heart, she was abandoned as a baby by her family and left in the care of those who doesn’t love her at all. She grew up having to rely on her own self without the ability to love other people. And even when her family returned, she still found herself drowning with her mom’s constant criticisms and complaints of her shortcomings. She was drowning and eager to grab a life line, something that her parents should have provided but failed to do so, and that was why she was quick to accept her first bethrothal and then ML’s, thinking that it was her ticket to freedom.
Although I am not a fan of damsel-in-distress type of character, which the FL is, i totally love her guts. She has no physical prowess, with a body so frail that she would faint at extreme sadness or agitation, but her wit, intelligence and stubborness make up for that. Despite her gentle look, FL is extremely quick-witted, relentless and unyielding. She has no problem talking back to others with a sharp tongue in her defense, against whoever it may be. Her mom failed to appreciate her strengths, but the Empress did, and it is understandable that FL quickly allevated her as a mother figure. I was super satisfied when FL decided to stay with the Empress in isolation, leaving her home without much qualm. Back then, her mom had left her for the loyalty to the emperor, and now when she bade farewell, she said she too chose loyalty to the empress over filial piety. What a great “in your face” moment though FL had not meant it to be a revenge. I loved FL mom’s character because she is a tiger mom like me, but it is still so satisfying to see her take her own medicine. I can’t forgive her for favouring Yangyang and keep denouncing FL in public over and over again.
Leo Wu had proven his talent in The Long Ballad, so I totally know he’d definitely be able to pull off the fierce general look, and a love stricken lover. ML is basically hell bent on taking a revenge on his clan’s extermination, and is ruthless in seeking out the truth. Him being most favoured person of the emperor made him almost untouchable. Although he was busy investigating, he realized he could not miss out a chance at romance too. And so when FL’s first bethrothal was rescinded, he immediately asked for her hand in public, without even asking if she would be okay with it or not. It showed how much confidence he has in himself, and he made sure she could not refuse by shamelessly asking the emperor to do it for him, putting FL’s parents in a tight spot. ML is a resilient soul, very similar to FL, and as they get to know each other, they realized although they very much love each other, they still lost sight of accepting each other’s shortcomings, which had cost them very dearly.
This is the first show ever that I saw where the empress and the concubine got along with each other, and they are not even pretending to be just for the sake of looks. The Emperor is quirky and lovable and I totally ship them three. Their love for the ML and for each other is truly genuine and pure. And as usual, ML’s two sidekicks always get my vote of favourite goofy characters. I don’t know how they do it, but in most of military oriented shows like this, the ML always have two sidekicks with opposite characters, 1 usually serious and 1 goofy and every time, they always caught my eyes and make it to the favourite spot. Ah Qi and Ah Fei, you guys rock!
The fights are excellently choreographed, one of the best I’ve seen without the flying or superhuman sh!t, and this is also the first show that I’ve seen where people don’t vomit blood for every injury they have. In here, even as they were being hit on the abdomen repeatedly, all i see was water or saliva coming out of the mouth, and no blood. Now that is what I call realistic! It is so stupid to see injuries like sword wound or pierced by an arrow or beatings on the butt and yet they vomit blood. Duh 😒🙄 oh and the show doesn’t pull off any poisoning or amnesia trope either. 👍🏼
All in all, the screenplay is so damn good. It is 56 episode long, but it didnt feel like that due to how engaging the story is. And although none of the main and major support roles died, I still cried buckets due to the emotional rollercoaster they put me on. This title couldve gotten an all 10 points from me had they not slacked a bit on the music side. None of the OST caught my ears or stayed in my head, so there goes the music category.
However, this is also the first show that I wished it had a tragic ending. I wished FL died on that cliff on that few last episodes, and ML lived in regret forever. He had not suffered enough for abandoning FL at the earlier cliff scene. Too bad it had a happy ending instead.
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A bundle of Joy
I liked that this one did not have backstabbing and betrayal by family members. I felt there might be the typical cousin lover fight but there wasn't and the Cheng Family were very good to each other and entertaining to watch. I was damn impressed with Old lady Cheng, she cracked me up each time :) and there was a lot of cunning schemes and revenge done by the FL which gave me story of minglan vibe and the ML quest to uncover the truth of his _____ death was a long journey of 15 yrs it reminded me of yanxi palace in which FL goes from simple servant in the palace to imperial consort with tons of scheming to finally avenge her sisters rape and murder. Overall it's a good watch the only thing I felt it missed was not seeing them having a family of their own. A scene of them living Shang's dream of simple village kinda life or maybe a scene of Qiqi and Song's kids playing around with their Uncle Zisheng (ML). Ah it would have been a perfect ending. We also missed out on their wedding and the rest of the siblings. Those scenes would have made this the best of the best drama IMO.Was this review helpful to you?
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Conspiracies!
Everyone she met was conspiring against her and Zisheng all the way to the end. It was obviously their fault for everything bad that happened to the conspirator (sarcasm present).In the end, only 1 friend, 2 men who loved her, the emperor and empress and her family didn't betray her at some point besides Zisheng and his people. Everyone else, no matter how nice they seemed, had an agenda and wanted to end her life at some point.
Also, the emperor's consort aggravated my soul so much. I understand they were childhood sweethearts and that the emperor was forced to marry the empress by their family, but they didn't have to make her life miserable. The drove her so deep into depression, she later died of a broken heart. And I blame them. With the consort acting like she was so magnanimous and going to convince the emperor because she could, with their constant smiling and looking at each other with love like the empress didn't deserve love too. Even to the end, the empress called this rat a sister.
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Coming of age and understanding what love is
In part 1, Zhao Lusi was in her element being cheeky, mischievous and lovable. For part 2, we see more serious emotions and she pulls this off very well too making me cry along with her and making my heart ache when she suffers setbacks.With the story involving more of the royal family this time, it was refreshing to see the Consort and the Empress getting along with each other and not get jealous of each other unlike other palace dramas. Consort Yue was my favourite with her sharp tongue and no nonsense attitude.
Skipping forward 5 years was nicely done here with little snippet scenes - something I haven’t seen in a drama before. Watch out for a little humour with “chicken wings” and “rabbit” as a break from all the seriousness.
(Repeat from Part 1 as it still holds true for Part 2)
The cinematography is superb and had those panning scenes which I enjoyed in A Dream of Splendor. Scenery was gorgeous and sets were very realistic. Casting for the extras was very well done and it was so good to see the black guards looking especially tough and rugged unlike some dramas where the guards looked like school boys.
Unfortunately, while I loved the FL, I would have preferred a different ML. Just personal preference on what I would consider handsome. His posture didn’t sit well with me either but other than that he was a good actor who rode the horse very well and had great fighting scenes.
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Compliments:
story was pretty good, loved Ling Buyi’s character. Cast was awesome, everyone looked nice and well fit for their role, though I think that Yuan Shangjian did a pretty good job acting as the “annoying pushy” character cause he also played in rebirth for you and his character was completely different. Also another sad show that made me cry a lot.
Complaints:
Number one is costuming, even though this show has probably added a new color palette to all the Chinese dramas, since the color of the entire show is just dark colors. I really think the coloring could have been better and same with costuming. Another complaint is the length of the show, it does not need to be this long again it could have been cut down to maybe 35 episodes and there’s too many side stories that aren’t important and make the show a bit boring and lots of skipping around.
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Love grows and people too
Honestly thought that they shouldn't even divide this into 2 parts. I get it that it shows volta, or jump mood- switch mood, in literature jargon but it just makes the difference a lot more obvious and affected the judgment. Part 1 is just a rising action, so a lot of praises go to it because they build the story well. Very well and entertaining I'll give them that. But part 2 starts with climax. When a story starts with climax, if it isn't engaging enough it is easy to get ruin. And the in-story is heavy too. Politics and all. But I still like it cause apart from this, the story was so well done that everything else is forgivable.I like that that they use human emotions well. Not every good man is a bad man and not every bad man is a good man. Because we're human. Things that we do have justifications. What comes around goes around. They played with family institutions well too. You know that in family, once you count the others fault, it will never end. Because family can do the worse to us but also can be the only person stand for us. So nothing should be calculated cause nothing should be count.
'Kan ai kan hen' - dare to love, dare to hate. I thought it was a rare personality too. Since she made clear what she want- often things we can't do nowadays Because she made a very clear line, ngl sometimes you want to screw flexibility in her head. Girl just take a hint. But that what make the show goes I guess. I take a long time to finish part 2, because how heavy the story gets and I can't handle it. (The unpredictable of Zisheng's action make it worse too). I thought Niaoniao doesn't show enough love to Zisheng when she said she love him in the beginning. I always thought that she said she's in love but she didn't look like it. I'm about to complain through the eps, but interestingly it does feel like Niaoniao's love grows, stronger day after day. It was so interesting like she went from 'no i don't love him' to 'yes he's my world'. Zhao Lusi acts well I guess?
I'm glad that they don't rush things. Much. So any complain I had about person's personality or story just dissipate cause they solve it well. Like I said, they use complex human emotions well and solve every complain that I had. All in all, I had a good laugh in part 1, I had a good cry in part 2.
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Although 10 episodes were cut, I thought it was still great. This drama had amazing cinematography, music, light hearted moments, anxiety driven moments, great chemistry and offered us a happy ending.
I haven't cried with a drama in a long time, and yes I tend to cry where there are daddy issues.... Lol. But I cried with this drama. I cried when they lost their loved ones, I cried when the characters reconciled with each other, I cried during the happy moments. I cried when family members made up. It was perfect.
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Love like the Galaxy and Moon Lovers are the only dramas that made me feel alive.
I was actually planning to watch Who Rules the World first but decided to watch this because it's Top 1 on WeTV. This is the first Cdrama that I've ever watched and I really got hooked right from the start. The actors and actresses portrays the character very well. I can feel all the emotions that they are expressing. It's not yet completed but I'll surely miss them all. I can't wait to watch the next episodes and worse is that I saw the spoilers and now I can't think anything but it. LOLOLOL Overall, Love Like the Galaxy is really worth watching. I hope for more dramas like this in the future.Was this review helpful to you?
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Rules for thee but not for me.
***** a review for part 2 only******I was unexpectedly taken with Part 1, especially with the refreshing performance of Shaoshang's mother and Consort Yue both of whom I still adore. Thus Part 2 really disappointed me.
The main reason is that Part 2 is mostly filler. Primarily, a lot of driving force behind Ling Buyi's revenge was resolved early on in Part 1, so we kind of lost the 'bigger plot' and began to introduce random plot lines that were not foreshadowed in the previous part. Unfortunately this means that there was a huge focus on the romance. Which is a very cliche cdrama romance where Ling Buyi is manly and overbearing and defeats all the 'bad guys', and random plot points are invented as new points of conflict.
The biggest issue with this is that Ling Buyi starts to show us who he really is. And if you think about what he's done... he's not the hero. He's basically a villain disguised as a troubled good guy.
Let's just compare him to the first 'enemy' that he vanquishes in Part 2, which is the Third Princess. What is she guilty of? She pushed Shaoshang into a river and got a snake to bite her, and she said brainless things like 'it's just a human life, nothing more'. She's very cut and dried case of 'stupid and evil'. A 2d villain.
But what does Ling Buyi do in retaliation? There's a reason we have laws and a justice system in civil society. But Ling Buyi takes the law in his own hands, he is both judge and executioner. He kills all the male consorts of the Third Princess. He parades her friends tied up in the streets because of their role as a bystander. He hangs the father of one of the friends up in front of his house for hours, berating him. Is this 'justice'? Maybe this is what Shaoshang means when she says that if someone hurts her, she'll "get thousand fold revenge" later in the show, because she certainly seems to completely support what he's done.
We know he's never been a law abiding kind of guy and in Part 1 it was foreshadowed that he was feared for his brutality by prisoners of war (something which boosts his manly image, I suppose). But it's really hypocritical for him to condemn the 'evil' and 'law breaking' bad guys in Part 2 and then turn around and do things that are just as bad, or worse. Who in the story has murdered more people directly than Ling Buyi? We can count those masterminds on one hand.
There are other faults with Part 2, but this is the greatest one imo: Ling Buyi (and Shaoshang by association) basically abide by the law when it suits them and defy the law when they wish to take "thousand fold revenge". They are not some 'good guys' in this story, but we are expected to pretend they are, and even to root for them. Rules for thee but not for me.
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