Blossom

Another Sigh mid way

I was really excited finding out that this drama was on Ntfx because I really the novel. I watched it right away on the first day it was added.
I found that the opening of Blossom was really grand and cinematic. It gave me a high expectation.

Then came the fillers and it became boring.

Well, to be honest, my review is not only intended for this drama specifically, but to almost all C-dramas.

Generally they started great, just like this one. It successfully piqued the viewers curiosity on the first episode, but the filler stories are too much.

Why are many C-dramas filled with conflict between children and step parent? I think it's way too much. Moreover, it existed in the dramas that aired almost at the same period of time, making it really obvious, for example, this drama, the Rise of Ning, the Double, and many more.

I hope there will be improvement in cdramas in term plot and story. It's okay to improvise the novel as long as it doesn't make things become boring.

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The first time i wrote a review bc im impressed this drama and leads' acting

I should admit that the title is confusing bc there were some previous drama with similar title

What I like the most of the acting is the LYR's gaze, body language. Finally, i get chances to pay attention of LYR's acting properly through this drama, i should thank the director for giving him chance to be a ML. His grey hair, candy eyes, and strong gaze matches pretty well, I even rewatched some scenes to see it. He totally nailed it.

There are too many characters in this drama (maybe it also happened in mostly historical drama), so you need more memory storage in your head hehehe.

The storyline is give me cliffhanger whenever i have to wait for another episode. Although there are some dramas with similar story (past life, current life), but I'm always excited to watch this drama.

The chemistry between leads' are amazing. The height gap between leads look so romantic.

Although LYR looks thin, but he actually a muscular body, so it matches his character as a hero.

I think their marriage and romance life starts sooner than mostly romance dramas, so anyone who loves romance would definitely love it.

MZY's acting is also good, i think it's much better than WJY's , this is the first time i watch her acting, i usually saw her clumsiness in Hello Saturday hahaha

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Ah, yes. My favorite tropes: Mistrustful Acquaintances to Lovers and Chosen Families.

The Drama portrays the struggle of our lead, who wants to stay independent without the need for a husband after the disaster her past life was with the same man. Now, with the knowledge of the future in the book given to her before her death, she tries to change the course of the following years for the better—for her life and the lives of those she met before she died.

There is familial scheming, political intrigue, chosen families, destined lovers, pressures of the society at the time, and a constant tension and worry about what will happen next. It's gripping and there is never a dull moment!

Our Female Lead is manipulative, emotionally mature, and knows how to protect herself from the political and familiar scheming that surrounds her. Being disillusioned by love after a big betrayal and heartbreak, she does everything in her power to establish herself as financially independent as possible this time around—and promises to live this new chance at life for herself and her own happiness instead of others. And even if some of her attempts to change the course of the future do not go according to plan, she does not give up, and instead adapts and tries again. The actress does a wonderful job in all of her scenes and in all of the character's phases.

Our Male Lead is strong-headed and moved by justice and honor. And even if some of his decisions are violent and cruel, he is still honorable and very gentle with the right people. Seeing the difference between what he could become and who he started as is heartbreaking, and his scenes with his family and friends are lovely and sweet—and just as strong as the heartbreak that comes after. The actor also does a wonderful job here portraying his character's rageful moments and his soft and fond moments, too.

The slow burn of their relationship building itself up from mistrustful of each other to allies and then something else is lovely to watch, and seeing their views of the other change with time is also lovely. But our FL has no interest and doesn't believe in love anymore, and our ML is hesitant to consider his feelings because he is searching for someone special who saved his life once.

There has not been a single boring episode so far and that is hard to do! All actors—even secondary characters—have given their all in their portrayals and the whole OST has been just as lovely and has a very recognizable melody that comes up in impactful scenes to make everything perfect. Costume design and fight choreographies also do not disappoint. Emotional moments hit hard and deep, and light and fond moments feel special and sweet. I really can't recommend this drama enough!

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LI YUN RUI

Ok, I've watched 4 dramas of Li Yun Rui (LLtG, Scene of Love, the Last Immortal, Blossom) and naturally have a great impression of him. Being new in the industry he's doing pretty good although need some polishes to get better. He's a dignify gentleman in LLtG, a Scoundrel in Scene of Love, a naive in Last Immortal and In Blossom he has great visual especially in the first episode where he has grey hair and some great action. I was thinking 'wow...this is good'. When they have misunderstanding & suspicious of each other (ep5) in the storm rainy day, that's great scenes - dramatic backdrop setting. But after ep 22 & the marriage, I am taking a break - them focusing in romance more. Not that I don't like romance, I do, I just don't like too much expose on lovey dovey. The action less frequent than the beginning of the drama. The storyline is more domesticated; greediness from the womenfolk, competition between two marriaged sisters, who got more money and who has bigger dowries. Where's the base on the original story of ep 1 gone?

The cameramen shoot very good angles, perfect caption on the expression of actors faces, nice execution. I think the director is the best asset in Blossom. The story though, same old same these 'reborn to a new beginning after crucial fate in the previous life'. No matter how twisted the plots - a character come back for reeducate to be better so won't have the same sadly ending. It's kind like of cheating of exams - students know the questions and would have same answers in different deviation. Also it's about dysfunctional family members; mix and match of a mean step mother, stupid dad, ambitious uncle, nice grandmother, etc. We know that part and nothing much to appreciate. If C-drama keep doing same thing, I am afraid nothing left to watch.

I don't know in which episode Song Mo (LYR) will start to take some action in revenge of his uncle death. I am watching this up to ep 22 and still no heart to continue it. But I think this is one of the better drama than anything else. Right now, this is it.

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Feisty heroine, interesting hero, not padded as the usual costume dramas are with fluff

The story may not be original but the acting is excellent, the cinematography is also excellent, and the episodes are well-paced without being padded by unnecessary or wasted material. One of the better period pieces I have watched this year. Along with The Double I find that these less hyped series with less well known stars are turning out to be the best. I am hoping that this excellence continues through the remainder of Blossom but so far I am impressed by the quality and I find myself anticipating and looking forward to each episode as it is released which to me is the mark of a good drama. Plus the two leads have excellent chemistry so the connection between them and their love story is very believable.

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frustrating male characters

If you're here for politics the female lead will probably carry you through. If you're here for the love story you're probably in for a rough ride.

I was invested in all the characters and rooting for things to go well...right up until the leads met in their new life.

The male lead and his army make their re-entrance by plotting to murder everyone in the female leads home in order to keep their secret, then when she manages to outwit them immediately start talking about how wicked and twisted and suspicious she is. Because apparently a good person would have just laid down to die quietly.

Unfortunately things don't get better from there.
The Ding Army characters are brash, suspicious, and damn stupid. They're constantly charging headfirst into danger, trying to handle political intrigue and court maneuvering the same way they would a sword fight. The female lead then has to bail them out, usually against their will and while the lot of them hiss and mutter about how vicious and scheming she is.

According to the male leads subordinates, anything bad that happens to them must be the fault of the female lead. And I do mean anything, right down to the emperor disbanding their army (which he did because he got word that the male lead's subordinates had come back to the capital without orders) has got to be her direct fault. Nevermind all the effort she's put into hauling their asses out of the fire, including the time she had to lock them in a coal shed to prevent them storming the imperial prison.

A friend of mine said it's because they have trust issues over their commander being betrayed by his emperor, but the female lead has done nothing but try to help them. Yes her family is working against them, but they know from their own information network she's at odds with her family AND she helped them at great risk to herself before her family ever started making trouble for the ding army.

Honestly I dropped this because by episode 10 all I wanted was for the female lead to wash her hands of the whole ungrateful lot of them, but I know she won't.

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I Blame Tiktok!

Technically, I dropped this one midway through episode 12. However, MDL doesn't give you the option for that kind of thing. It doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things but I did want to preface this review with that minor correction.

First things first, time travel is one of my favorite tropes of all time. Hands down, bar none. If there's a drama where time travel is the central focus, or at least the beginning of the story, then count me in. However, the time travel wasn't enough to draw me in and keep me there, you know? The FL in this drama gave me Bai Lu vibes - essentially, I couldn't quite tell if she was romantically interested in the ML/her male counterpart or not. With Bai Lu, I can never tell if her characters even LIKE their male counterparts/love interests. It's the strangest phenomenon and ultimately the primary reason why I stopped watching her dramas but I digress.

So, this FL gave me those same types of vibes and I don't like that. Sure, the romance won't always be the central focus of these types of dramas but I expected a LOT more than I got. From social media and various edits scattered across different platforms of this couple, I expected to be knocked OUT by their romance and the fiery chemistry. Alas, that didn't happen. Where was all this fiery passion and magnetic chemistry I was promised? Because it wasn't here and I actually want my money back. I was bamboozled! I want a refund. The first episode will lead you to believe there will be MORE between these characters and it just never happens. It's definitely in the overrated and overhyped pile.

Granted, I understand that they won't automatically fall for each other because of the very valid mistrust between them. It's normal and par for the course. However, the ML started getting softer and softer (in my opinion) as the drama progressed while the FL simply didn't. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a drama where He falls first and falls harder BUT I still need to see some reciprocity from the FL. The ML can't be the only one doing all the heavy lifting with the romance and I have a very kneejerk reaction when it does happen. Then again, I try my best to stay far, far, far away from dramas if I get a whiff of that being a thing because that's not my personal taste. To each their own, of course.

The acting from the leads was fine. It wasn't horrible but I will say that I found myself way more intrigued by the ML than the FL, which is another thing that I'm not too fond of. If I'm watching a drama and the ML is drawing my eye meanwhile we're spending most of our time with the FL, there's an issue there. A big one. My mind shouldn't be drifting towards the ML when we're with the FL and I find that happening a LOT. The guy who played Song Mo is pretty decent; I definitely see great things for his future. The woman who played the FL is fine but I do wonder what she would do with a character who is meant to be more open and playful and less guarded and stone-faced. If I'm not mistaken, she also played one of the side characters in The Untamed (which I dropped) but I don't remember there being a big difference between that character and this one. The characters seemed to be quite similar to me.

I really wanted to swoon over the illustrious Song Mo as that's what all the girls were screaming about, but the drama didn't give me any real reason to do so and that's the biggest misstep of them all. So much wasted potential!

Would I recommend it? Honestly, no. Unless you're in the mood for a drama with very little romance and heavy on literally everything else, then sure. I'm here for the romance and I'm not sitting through a drama where the romance is an afterthought. Would I rewatch it? Also no. I couldn't get through it the first time and I doubt I'll get through it a second or third. In fact, this drama actually made me go back to rewatch Si Jin.

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i plan on making this quite long.
i started watching this drama out of nowehre just because youtube suggested it to me and it looked quite fun. I went in with no expectations and boom - favorite drama of the year. i knew some actors/actresses from previous dramas especially liyunrui. i loved his acting in love like the galaxy and was extremely bummed because of his second lead role in the previous drama so i was of course overjoyed to be watching this one where he is the lead.
let me first start with the storyline. it was fucking beautiful. it was so hard to trust anyone after evey given episode, like after each and every episode im like what im trusting the right person right? this guy wont betray the ones i like right? my favorite character wont be degraded to execution or something right? my bloop pressure was over the roof for the last few episodes. it just kept rising with every scene. the storyline was executed to beautifully im just astounded. the way dou zhao grows up to be such a strong woman and be independant is truly admirable. the first part of the drama was lowkey blunt but the moment song mo and dou zhou came to know of each-other's presence, that was the moment the drama boosted up for me. thei rchemistry was immaculate and the enemies to lovers was just chef's kiss
honorary mention to miao ansu and song han. i really thought they would have a happy ending but alas that was truly unfortunate. the way so many people died out of the blue it was just sad. that was the only thing that i was found was unnecessary.
next the actors. not only did i like the leads for some reason i loved gu yu and ji yong's characters sm as well. i was wavering the whole series whether ji yong is to be trusted or not like every other episode he gains dou zhao's trust but the very next episode he is out for blood like bro wtf choose a side i fucking swear my bp peaked just because of him. gu yu was a lovely character, he was the comedic relief this drama needed and i hoped he could be there more. other than that i love miao ansu as well. ik kong xuer from ywy and i was honestly surprised as i did not know she was a part of this drama.
all in all this is the best impulsive decision ive made this year, totally worth all my time and mental health.

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Great Drama

This is such a great drama that i have rewatched too many times to count. The CP between the keads is definitely off the charts. My only problem really is when her sistwr married the guy she didnt want to begin with. Her sister did a great favor. As rich as she was, why didnt she help money-wise? She was totaly rich and didnt help her sister which made me upset. She was not suppose to ignore the past, but she didnt like her betrothed to begin with. Had she helped her more, her sister wouldnt have faced so many defeating events. It made me look down on her pristine character and question the ethics of her character. She knew her sister's mother was horribke. Had she stepoed in ti help her, they may have had a beautiful life. SMH...sigh. i guess we all have dlaws that we don't acknowledge.

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