it makes me sad because i really wanted to enjoy it, the premise was so good! but i couldn't care about for most of the characters, and those who were nice to watch had little screen time compared to others, and in the end some of them turned out to be irrelevant.
i didn't like the bonus episode as well, made me cringe because it didn't seem like a continuation of the drama, it was out of place
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Strong start, weakened by excessive tears and superficial storytelling
This was a super easy drama to get into because you have the intelligent and strongwilled protagonist being framed for having an affair before she is swiftly "saved" by her righteous husband only to then be murdered by him. We then learn it's him and his family who orchestrated the whole thing! So does one need anything more but to get stuck into our popcorn and watch the unravelling of events where we get to see the FL return from the dead with a new identity seeking revenge not only for herself, but for the identity that she has claimed? Two is better than one!Ignoring certain unrealistic or illogical happenings at the start, this drama was captivating enough to continue because the story and direction kept us engrossed. You have the ex-husband who's being kept prisoner by a princess whose chronic obsession with him renders him a puppet to be used and abused by her both mentally and physically. Witnessing such a miserable existence of the ex-husband, coupled with the peculiar/deranged personality of the princess really made this unique drama set-up, an oddly satisfying watch.
The excitement surrounding FL Xue FangFei revealing hee face to her murderers at an important event also kept me on my toes wondering, what next??
So with the characters nicely set up, we are rooting for FL, and although I find the ML a little A4, at the very least he's not annoying, nor is he hard to look at, so I'm thinking, not bad Youku, you may have a big hit with this dark horse!
However.... the weaknesses of the story slowly start to emerge due to the poor directing of Yuzheng. Firstly, we see FL and her maid crying more than necessary and during scenes where tears were not required to convey the feelings of the characters. At one point I felt like the director had a fetish for beautiful tears streaming down pretty actors' faces. But I can overlook the insistence of the director instructing the actors "cry here, and cry again there", because in his mind he believes that's how the audience will believe these actors have acting talent.
Things start to seriously get wonky once the FL and ML get drunk one night and FL decides to let ML know she is physically attracted to him. Oh boy... where do I begin to vent my frustrations with the many problems of this particular scene???
You have just been betrayed and killed and buried alive by your husband not long ago, in addition to finding out that your dad and brother have also been killed by him or the person behind him, and yet you can quickly transition to flirting with another guy? Is she out of her mind? I understand that one can still develop feelings for a person even if one has been wronged, but the way in which one moves on, and the type of trauma suffered should be a factor in how one moves on. It was as if she had never been murdered, and she's now got herself a handsome new suitor that she's excited about... Would one not be a little jaded to say the least? And how can one fathom even entertaining the idea so soon after experiencing such a stomach-churning experience? I mean we know its still in her mind since theres no shortage of them replaying the scene of her being hit over the head with a shovel multiple times. I think its fine to like the ML, but it's weird how they are portraying the attraction. Her behaviour and thought process doesnt seem to fit in with the rest of the story and the time the story is set.
We then get a much slower pacing of the drama which detracts from the enjoyability of the drama since it was the fast pace and tightly packed story that held our utmost interest at the start.
We get an early boring arc of her cousins family being targeted, before they show FL seeking justice for her real dad which was the most poorly delivered part of the drama because they tried so hard to make it tug at the heartstrings which then led it to produce the opposite effect. There was a lot of overacting and plenty of contrived scenes which detracted from the overall emotional portrayal that one would expect from such a storyline.
The other problem aside from the weirdly developing romance, incessant tears, and lack of subtlety of the injustice done to FLs real dad, is the fact that the duke is always solving all the problems. We need more scenes where he doesnt just appear out of nowhere to save the day. If so, then why do we need FL to have any intelligence at all? The worst scene so far is when Jiang Lis dad stands in front of FL to save her from being killed, and instead of focusing on this touching moment, the limelight is given AGAIN to ML for saving the day with his fan... But he has done it a million times before, and it wasnt even a difficult save, so why not put the focus back on the actual dad and his moment of standing up to the bully and protecting her daughter??
I'm going to continue watching this for the exhusband and craycray Princess Wanning because their characters are the most intriguing and its a treat to see the tortured soul witness a live version of his dead wife coming to life to torment him whether intentionally or unintentionally. In terms of the main romance, and even the upcoming story development, I don't have much expectations.
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My first thought “Damn Awesome”
so I was in a drama slump and like I was eternally bored, so I just decided to watch it as it just randomly popped up… And Thank all gods that it popped up or else I would’ve missed this masterpiece.Right from the first moment it hooked me and I was like wow! that’s intense. I thought wait I came here for a romance what is this?? thank god it is!!
The acting is amazing! The sound track- breathtaking! And finally the cinomatography- chefs kiss! Just looking at it it’s obvious that it’s a high budget drama! And the director cares literally cares for the drama! Perfection!
If I you don’t get hooked by the intense fast paced plot, you get an amazing story, you get life like characters, you get brilliant absolutely brilliant cinematography! and most of all you get great Soundtrack!!
May lord bless the one who decided to make it!
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This review may contain spoilers
An ending that pulled the whole show down
The drama is actually quite a fun watch. You know from the get go what sort of drama it is going to be and you can sit back and just enjoy the beautiful cinematography with ease, because the plot armour is going to be thick in this one. No drama, no stress. Our characters never really face setbacks themselves, but the people around them do, so the leads come in as a sort of messiah to save the day.Yes, it is a typical Mary Sue. And no, there is nothing about the plotline that is original or never seen before. We have it all - the OP couple, the spineless father (that suddenly finds one by the end), the jealous half-sisters, the obsessed lovers, the court drama etc. YetThe Double has taken the same formula and delivered it in a bottle that people will buy just for how it looks…like stanley cups.
The leads seem to be in their comfort zone with acting, with Xue Fangfei being a more peppy version of Wei Yinglou. But the acting in general is quite good. The drama does many face zoom shots, which are really a hard hit-or-miss, especially when it comes to Wu Jinyuan, but Wang Xing Yue does them quite well. However, the two antagonists - Liang Yong Qi as Shen Yurong and Li Meng as The Eldest Princess, Wanning- stole the show. The two bring a depth and emotionality to their characters that the leads seem to lack, allowing us the space to understand their characters better. It is almost like the plotline tries to do the leads dirty. Everyone gets a sad backstory for being evil, even Ji Shuran; I dislike it when shows don’t do that well. Especially for this type of story, such backstories only annoy or seem meaningless.
As you progress in the story, you find yourself confused about Shen Yurong’s intentions - is he protecting Xue Fangfei, is he remorseful, is he manipulating Wanning, or is he really evil? Even till the end, you wonder what his actual plan is. Liang Yong Qi shows us Shen Yurong’s descent from an upright and happily married scholar to a morally corrupt, murderous and unhinged man who himself doesn’t know which of his words are the truth and which are false. Though he blames the world for making him the way he is - hungry for power to protect himself and his family. Shen Yurong comes from a poor family. His father’s death was caused by someone powerful and they were unable to even seek justice. The final words Yurong’s father left behind were “be the most powerful or you will always be the one being crushed”. And his struggle to become the most powerful also comes with giving up his morality and love. He values the struggles his mother and sister went through to raise him to his level so for him they are non-negotiables. So when pushed to the corner, he sacrifices Xue Fangfei. Every Time he meets her since then, he always seems to be on the brink of a mental breakdown. You can see he struggles with his choices- both past ones and the ones he knows he has to make. He hates the man he has become and seems to want to return to the way things were - to start afresh. Almost putting the whole country in jeopardy to achieve it. Every scene takes him closer to the desparation of a cornered powerless man fighting off the demons he created. I can't say I am dissatisfied with his ending, It is sad to watch a man who had the potential to be good to turn out be the most pathetic. As Xue Fang Fei said, I hope he reincarnates as a powerful noble so he can finally hold up the morals we all know he possesses at his core.
At the same time, you don’t see Wanning as anything but a princess drunk on power. Someone who likes to hold her “sacrifice” of being used as a hostage for the enemy kingdom and her poor treatment there to get away with murder. And she gets away with so much that it doesn’t make sense at all for any emperor to tolerate her! Sometimes I found myself wanting to scream at the emperor “Just use Xiao Heng to spread the Princess’ true character which can give you a chance to investigate and prove it and THEN get rid of her!”, but I guess I am too modern to understand the intricacies of imperial politics. It was annoying, seeing this seemingly motivationless woman just kill someone because she fancied her husband. But then you get her backstory - you see the humiliation, the torture, the pain, and the torture she went through. She is treated like a low level concubine and not a princess, being used to the whims and fancies of her captor. A hauntingly beautiful scenery to mask her inner turmoil. She has been abandoned in a shed with sheep and goats. She walks into the middle of the lake in the winter, forcing herself to miscarry the child in her belly. Which eventually leads her to not be able to have children. As a woman myself, it was hard to see all that and not even feel an iota of empathy. It makes everything she does make so much sense. She thinks the country owes - she suffered while the rest of the country lived in peace. She takes what she wants, rules be dammed. She is delusional and obsessive, but it makes sense. Despite her sarcasm and mean demeanor, she genuinely fell for Shen Yurong. The possibility of being with his child makes her lose that evil edge, making her softer and less domineering, yet that is only for Shen Yurong. In the end, her death also is decided by her, she lost for the first time since her return, and not to Xue Fang Fei or Duke Su, but the love of her life, Shen Yurong.
They both have tragic ends, never even coming close to their goals. Though as they reach their end, you feel a tinge of regret for the people they could have been had they not been dealt such unfair cards in life. But that also means the main characters would’ve continued on as their incomplete selves.
That is something the show portrays very well. The leads are well matched in terms of cunningness, smartness and wit. In fact you can see there are gaps in one’s strengths that are filled in by the other. For example, Xiao Heng starts to lose his cool when Jiang Li is in danger, while at the same time Jiang Li keeps her cool (even the emperor comments on it at one point). Jiang Li tends to go overboard, often placing herself in danger, which is where Xiao Heng steps in to pull her back. Jiang Li does take a lot of support from Xiao Heng, but initially it is mostly to involve him in her scheme so if exposed he can help her, but later that support is freely given and she takes advantage brazenly. The love confession is unspoken - they both know, only a confirmation of affection (along with a pan away kiss scene that makes you want to pull Yu Zheng’s fair out) is needed and they KNOW. In fact they have KNOWN for a long time about each other’s feelings and I find that so so so refreshing.
There are honestly only good things in my mind about the drama. It is a splendid watch. I wanna binge on it again. THOUGH the ending was FRUSTRATING and UNNECESSARY. Even though the special episode was a little awkward (maybe because it was so rushed and the snippets were really too short), you kind of understand the importance of post production work that goes into adding the dots on chemistry. Like usual, I am going to pretend the drama ended at the marriage scene and they had a happily ever after.
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It’s good not great
This drama, while enjoyable, didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I found the story and acting somewhat underwhelming, as they failed to evoke a strong emotional response. Interestingly, the negative lead female character stood out more to me than the main lead female. The ending, and the manner in which it was handled, felt inconsistent with the plot and character development throughout the series. Overall, I would categorize this as an average drama with average acting.Was this review helpful to you?
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Screenwriter's hatred for WOMEN is off the roof
Xue Fangfei promised Jiang Li so many things, only to be a huge let down. I could dismiss all the silly plotholes, weird tone shifts, and the FL dumbing down for the ML since it's a Mary Sue revenge plot, but the screenwriter's seeping misogyny was too hard to ignore.The story basically dumps all of the two FL's suffering onto the stepmother and those stereotypical evil women side characters. These characters are one-dimensional, existing only as plot devices to push the story forward, with no real personality or emotional depth. Even when there's no real reason to hate Xue Fangfei (jealousy?), the story still forces and amplifies it. The real Jiang Li knows her father is the real instigator and hates all of the Jiang family equally, whereas Fangfei ends up reconciling with father Jiang, disrespecting Jiang Li's dying wish. This is a textbook case of excusing men and shifting responsibility away from them.
In this storyline, Fangfei even comes off as an enabler of patriarchy. Fangfei has enough money to buy Qiongzhi's freedom. But instead, as a woman, she turns a blind eye to Qiongzhi's suffering and exploits Qiongzhi's body to save a man.
Xue Fangfei is a hypocrite. She said she hates rumors that tarnish a woman's reputation—but only when they concern herself. To others, she’s more than willing to add fuel to the fire. Imagine surviving sexual violence then dying from it, only for your boyfriend’s sister to tell him you ran off and wed someone else—misdirecting his grief while erasing your victimhood, your contributions, and your reputation—in a society where a woman’s worth was tied to her virtue. That's a surprising low EQ move coming from a protagonist that had good performance up until now.
The malice toward supporting female characters (all good and evil) is expressed through the destruction of their reputation, appearance, bodies, and reproductive organs. There are countless ways to justify antagonist Princess Wanning's fall into darkness, yet the writers once again resorted to sexual violence. Likewise, there are countless ways for the protagonist to defeat Princess Wanning, but the writers specifically chose childbirth.
I can't believe something like this is able to get a 8.8 rating on MDL, where the main users are female. It's 6.6 on Douban.
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It is always the least anticipated one that does wonders
When everyone was waiting for all the big dramas of the year to finally air and end the wait...all they did were just to disappoint the viewers with mediocre acting or boring script. Excessive CGI and stellar cast cannot save the drama either if the plot isn't going anywhere. And we have been graced with such CDramas for quite some time in the last few months. I really find it interesting that most of the dramas that are not hyped much ends up being the best ones. It was the case for this drama as well.The story isn't too complex to give you headache but still makes you want to stick till the end and despite having many loopholes here or there you would still be on the edge and wait for the next episode. There is nothing much to nitpick about acting when veteran actors are in the side roles and many of the actors that we already love are in the drama. I was surprised by a few actors who didn't leave much impression on me in their other shows but despite small role they did really very well in this one. The main cast and and their characters reminds me of LLTG a lot. ML is just so Ling Buyi and FL is just like Shaoshang. (If you tone down them a little). I loved all the scheming and bonding of the characters. Though the main lead do not interact a lot (especially in the first half) but when they do it is all sparks. All the subtle expressions and longing eyes are enough to make your heart flutter. Towards the end it feels as if plot was dragged a little bit and the open ending leaves audience with bitter feelings but the special episode make up for it. For CGI: Special mention for the music competition episode- it was little too much but still very beautiful. From music to production design everything is top notch.
Overall it is one of the best dramas of this year which you shouldn't miss at all. I highly recommend this one.
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This review may contain spoilers
When the leads match each other's freak on an intellectual level ??
Xue Fang Fei taking her revenge was so important to me and reminded me so much of Kang Ji Won from “Marry My Husband” – I rooted for these characters so, so much🧡. I think this show offers really great characterization; the mains are all very complex and compelling, and you can interpret so many interesting things.Wan Ning and Fang Fei were literally two sides from the same coin. Both experienced traumatic events because of men/a man, however, the way they dealt with those experiences was very different. Fang Fei said it best: she never targeted innocents. But can we really blame Wan Ning? She was not a very kind character whatsoever, but was she treated kindly? Her actions cannot be excused, but her backstory made it easier to understand her and her pain. She was used and abused, humiliated and treated like trash. Her retaliating and using men/people however she wanted was her way to assert back dominance over the very same sex that had oppressed her.
Fang Fei was such a smart character yet so sensible, Wu Jin Yan’s performance reminded me a lot of Wei Ying Luo from “Story of Yanxi Palace” (which I am currently rewatching🤭🤭), she just knows how to do revenge. Her acting in this was so, so good. I cried when she cried, I was mad and happy with her – she delivered a nuanced performance, I really enjoyed it.
Shen Yu Rong… drowned in an inferiority complex and a river of self-pity. There’s more to say about him, but I don’t want to waste energy typing about this loser. I share Duke Su’s disgust about this man.🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅
The overall acting in this was really good, there was so acting hole, everyone pulled their weight and added something to the scenes.
The styling, sets, OST (!!) were also so stunning (the flowy dresses!!)!
The revenge was great too. First half was to reclaim Jiang Li’s tarnished reputation, the second half was to use that reputation to advance Fang Fei’s own revenge. I really liked it even though we had to be a little patient, I wasn’t bored. The romance with Duke Su🪭 was also so good. The subtlety, their word plays… just ahh😈😈! The chemistry between them was so good, the tension they created was crazy to be honest (the rain scene…💀💀🤭🤭). Their reunion at the end felt a little underwhelming though… We didn’t even get to see his face😭😭But at least everyone got their revenge and our main couple got happily together💮🌸
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This review may contain spoilers
A typical rebirth or revenge drama- nothing special
C-costume drama fans have seen a lot of revenge or rebirth dramas but the question is which one is better.I find this drama OK with the storyline but there are other better series audience are able to enjoy.
If you have nothing to watch at the moment, this one is probably for you.
This drama is definitely not for me.
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Our main female lead is out for revenge against the selfish, deluded and truly evil. Much of the screentime goes to these terrible people to the point of frustration. Just as you can't handle one more cruel or petty scene, Jiang Li appears and takes them down. Jiang Li's plots are not overly complicated there isn't tons of intrigue, there's not a lot of gray areas. Frustratingly, also, most of the evil characters are women.
If you were hoping for a romance centric story, the romance is strung out for one or two scenes per episode, with our Duke Su always the puppet master, and never losing his composure or risking anything.
The costumes and production values are a bit low budget and do not make-up for the handicaps of this story. My frustration levels were high, and the rewards too delayed. I'm dropping.
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hmm...
I don't know... It was really interesting at first, but it got boring as I went on and I lost interest, but I watched it until the end.I can't give it a high score because I think it's pretty boring for a revenge drama.
There are many shorter, better revenge stories...
But what I can say is that it was the most interesting Chinese drama of 2024, that's all.
Among the Chinese dramas released in 2024, this is the only drama that I watched until the end.
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Love it
This story keeps you hooked and anticipating what will happen next. The villians you love to hate and the characters you can't help but fall in love with. The leads have this intense chemistry that just draws you in and it isn't physical but you can feel it. I keep telling myself I'll wait for all the episodes but I fail miserably because it's so addictive. I absolutely recommend it 👌 👍. You won't regret watching it but remember it's a slowburn but don't worry their chemisty makes up for it. It is action,humor,drama, tad fantasy🤏 and romantic. WATCH IT!!!Was this review helpful to you?
