Legend of the Female General

To be a woman is to perform,

I waited more than two years for this drama, and it did not disappoint me.

First of all, the acting:
I honestly don’t think anyone other than Zhou Ye and Cheng Lei could have portrayed these characters so perfectly. From the main leads to the extras, everything was on point, and it was such a satisfying experience to watch.
My only wish is that they had used Zhou Ye’s real voice in some scenes, especially the one where she had a fight with Chu Zhao in front of the court. Her natural voice while acting is so powerful; it gave me chills.

The production:
It wasn’t the most high-end production, obviously, but there wasn’t a single bad shot either. Personally, good production quality is very important to me, and sometimes I watch a drama just for its production value. For this drama, I can’t really say that, it wasn’t bad at all, but there were moments where I felt certain things were lacking. I truly believe they could have made it even better. Still, overall, the production and cinematography were good, not the best, but definitely solid.
That being said, I can confidently say that 90% of the budget went into the war scenes, and you can tell. Those scenes were where the drama truly shined and felt absolutely epic. They were so well done and truly deserving of praise, i watched some of them multiple times because they were just that stunning.

The story:
From what I know, many people were disappointed because the drama didn’t explore He Yan’s backstory and the hardships she went through to become a general. As someone who hasn’t read the novel and only followed the drama, I was satisfied. I think the pacing was smooth and calm. That said, I agree that adding more depth to those parts would have made the story even better.
I can’t blame the writers or the director for this, though. The 40-episode limit for adapting long Chinese novels is honestly such a big issue. You simply can’t condense thousands of chapters into forty 40-minute episodes. I’m glad this limitation is being lifted now so we can get better storytelling and higher-quality dramas in the future.
As for people saying He Yan’s behavior and words were “cringe,” I completely disagree. As a woman living in a patriarchal society, someone who has fought a real gender war for equality with my own life on the line, her words felt authentic to me, not cringey at all. I deeply related to her struggles.
Overall, I liked the way the story unfolded. Even though I didn’t read the novel, based on what others said, I also feel like focusing more on He Yan’s hardships would have made it even more powerful, but again, 40 episodes don’t allow much room for that.

Overall:
I’m just so happy this drama finally aired and I got to watch it. I really loved it and I definitely recommend it to everyone. The story was beautiful, and the dialogues were written so well. When that line came:
“Do you still like the moon?”
“Yes.”
“Then the moon is yours now.”
I was literally screaming from happiness.
He Yan was truly a strong woman, and I love seeing female-led dramas with characters like her. These kinds of stories heal something inside me that I didn’t even know existed.

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Before watching the drama, I had hoped that the FL was truly powerful and on par with the ML. I had hoped that they didn’t make her an annoying, whiny character out of nowhere, and, in my opinion, that didn’t happen. He Yan was powerful and strong when she needed to be, and she acted cute and endearing in front of the ML in private – which for me was the most perfect outcome/illustration of her character. Writers have a habit of making a strong FL but as soon as a man is involved (usually the ML) they make the FL weak, but I, personally, didn’t feel like that was the case in this drama. She truly was both a beauty and a brain (and she had amazing fighting skills). I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t include the full scene where she had to prove her worth by fighting 1v10, but I felt like her power and her skills still got shown throughout the drama, so it didn’t bother me that much.

I think the directors wanted to show a female lead, who was strong, but not only physically. Yes, I am also annoyed that they didn't show her iconic moment, where she had to fight 10 soldiers to prove that she is capable of being a female general. But I feel like her character would've fallen even more flat, if they had focused on showing her physical strength more, and therefore had shown less of her smartness and her knowledge regarding war and battle tactics.

I have seen criticism regarding the very last battle that they fought. Some people think that it was too short. Yet, I am over here thankful that it didn't last any longer than it did. Around half of the last episode was about war and their last battle, but I had hoped that they would've added the last battle into the plot for episode 35 or something, because, personally, I like when the last episode is just filled with happiness and romantic scenes. However, I felt like we saw enough of their dating era, and the drama had a happy ending, so overall I am still very content!

I truly felt so sad for He Yan and her story, because from a very young age she had to pretend to be someone else, and she just never experienced any peace since childhood, so it was so relieving and satisfying to watch her take it all back and get proper revenge in the end <3. I will say, that the story is pretty fast paced in the drama, so if you haven’t read the novel it might be a bit hard to follow along, BUT I didn’t read the novel (I did get some information from watching tiktoks and reading some comments about the plot in the novel), but I wasn’t confused. Also, since it was a bit fast paced I never felt like it was boring. For me, not a single episode was boring – but of course everyone has different opinions, so some people might not like that it’s fast paced.

When watching the drama, I actually felt like she became stronger when she was fighting together with Xiao Jue, if anything. They were the perfect power-couple every time they were on the battlefield or in the courtroom. I was actually so happy that Xiao Jue figured out that she’s a woman so early on, because I would have hated if they had dragged it out for no reason.

Let’s talk about He Rufei now: I was so mad when he said that it was crazy for a woman to gain military merits WHEN SHE ALREADY DID. The only reason why the brother felt the right to be so arrogant was because she had done it all in his name, so he became delusional and wanted to take back “his” achievements, but in reality, it was all her doing. Every time he appeared on the screen, I physically felt the need to sigh out loud, that’s how much I disliked his character. I will note: that it didn’t stop me from enjoying the main couple, the side couple, and the drama’s overall plot!! I couldn’t bring myself to hate him that much, since I absolutely LOVED Bai Shu’s character in Youthful Glory. I will say, that from what I have heard, the writers changed He Rufei’s character a bit from the original novel. In the novel, he never wanted to become a general. He genuinely hated war, but this aspect of his character was never shown in the drama. This was, for me, one of the drama’s biggest flaws. It wasn’t only He Rufei, it was all of the enemies, all of their characters felt so flat that it ruined the plot a bit. I watched this drama with almost zero expectations – I had been waiting for its release for around a year, but I didn't really have any expectations regarding the plot. I watched this drama purely for the romance, and did they deliver that perfectly? Yes. I loved the slow burn, I liked the angst and the yearning. I also liked that Xiao Jue found out the truth about her past, before they got in a committed relationship.

Overall, I really loved this drama, and it lived up to MY expectations (though other people might be a bit disappointed, I didn't have major expectations). The romance, the slow burn, and the tension between He Yand and Xiao Jue was beyond perfect. If you want to watch this for the romance - I would totally recommend!! If you want to watch an amazing drama with many fighting scenes and a really detailed plot - then this might not be for you (yet again, it might be idk). I, personally, felt like this drama delivered everything I was looking for perfectly.

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Worthy of all the wait!!

A Beautiful Love Story with Brilliant Action
Ever since I heard about this drama i had been waiting for it to release such a good drama with amazing actors. I loved every part of it.
Cheng lei and Zhou ye did a very good job in portraying their characters Xioa jue and He Yan. Story is mostly about He yan but ever since i have watched my journey to you i have been waiting for Cheng lei beacuse he just takes all the attention and I have loved Zhou ye in Back from the brick so a drama of my faves is what i needed and it didnt diappoint me and yeah the action scenes of both the leads are marvelous. And the Chemistry between the leads is soooo good i just loved the drama and i would rate it a solid 10 on 10
and yeah for the people who want to watch a nice women empowermen drama with a nice fluffy cute relationship main leads dont think twice because good shows are rare and this is one and i have forgot to talk about the ost the ost in this drama is also really good

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Not bad but poor directorial choices

Pluses in my book
✅️ 2 generals
✅️ Some memorable scenes
✅️ Well choreographed fighting scenes
✅️ Star studded cameos n supporting cast
✅️Women empowerment theme
Major issues
❌️ Unbelievable FL as general
❌️ Plot holes for convenience
❌️ Poor adaptation of novel
❌️ Poor acting of 2ML (Chu Zao)
❌️ FL too cutesy at times
❌️ Unnecessary drama

The world building was actually good and those who enjoyed Mulan like I do, couldnt wait to dive into this drama.

Yet, from the first scene of ZY as General He, I felt the casting director made a poor judgement and whoever dresses her up needs to be sacked. Theres no effort in trying to buff her up, or moderate her tone of voice. To make her believable not just as a soldier but as a general and supposedly an amazing one. We are suppose to eat that up?

2nd suspension of disbelief. How does one not see the difference between her and her step brother. From physique and stature to voice, they are so different. Again I have an issue with the director. Can i pass this off as lazy? We are suppose to roll with it?

Then comes the 3rd one. How does ML who is wise, observant and even shrewd, not notice? When he is the one who paid close attention to her back in their academy days. Her eyes and her brother's are different. Surely that mask doesnt cause a blur effect.

If one can brush off these 3 major issues, at heart it did have a good story to tell. A female not able to live as one from young. Assuming a male identity, learn to fight and became a strong general. Fell to betrayal. Rise again to seek retribution and regain her honour.

I also love some of the lines. The moon references that followed thruout the story. The brothers in arms that became her friends (though imo underutilised in the 3rd arc). And there's an actual current between CL and ZY's character.

So despite my many grumblings, I made it to the end and do think there were good bits, memorable bits. Albeit poor directorial choices that makes this a missed chance for what could have been a great drama.

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I like Moon, but Moon doesn't know

I was mezmerized by Zhou Ye's look when the first poster released. And Im satisfied.

This is the first drama of Cheng Lei that I watched. Actually I didn't know how was his acting before, but I heard people praise him a lot nowadays so I give him a shot. And of course I decided to watch this because of My Love Zhou Ye is here.

Story,
To be honest, the story it self are good enough for me. Even though there are lot of predictable plot, but it goes well and smooth from the start till end. I don't find any scenes or episodes that made me wanna skip. All of them are perfect.
Meanwhile the ending feels like it a little but rushed and forced. But actually overall are pretty good.

Acting and Cast,
My Love Zhou Ye as He Yan are SLAAYYEEEDDD. As a masked legendary general, newly soldier, a young master, a newly-wed-wife, and even an outstandingly-beautiful-yet-capable general. I know she always served. The charisma, the playfullnes, even in her most ugly scene are like He Yan it self coming out of the novel.
Cheng Lei surprisingly catch my eyes just because his skill of acting. Honestly I judge the ML just based on my imagination. Even he a little different with my head version of Xiao Jue, but he proved his acting skill. At least I feel his sincerity as a whole Xiao Jue as a young marshal, a student, a son, a lil brother, and as a lover.
Bai Shu as one of villains are not in my wishlist. OMG He actually can act, even though I found it hard to hate his sweet face , but I feel annoyed when he appeared in this drama.
I spot some actor that I watched before as Zhang Miao Yi, Handong, Zhang Kang Le, and even Wu Hao, the one that I watched in short chinese drama.
All of them are do really good job.

Music,
I always said this, if Zhou Shen singing to your drama then your drama will become a hit. And there is Curley Gao thay slayed in every songs. Then your drama are perfect.

Overall, this drama is such a nice drama to watched. And of course I will rewatch it later.

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Amazing Show From Start to Finish!

I enjoyed this show from beginning to end! (Majority of review is spoiler-free; very minor spoiler at the very end!)


You often see some common tropes like miscommunication in shows like this... But the way they framed everything in this particular one was so refreshing and didn't feel frustrating for the most part.

The pacing was really nice, it was easy to understand the plot and progression, and you could really feel the history between the characters and the stakes for each situation.

The romance is amazing and felt like it developed naturally, and I grew to really care about the ML and FL! I definitely squealed many times while watching this, I admit...

You might think this show is similar to Mulan, and indeed the trope of a female soldier disguising herself as a man is similar, but it definitely doesn't read like Mulan other than that. Legend of the Female General is its own show with its own unique plot and characters, so it doesn't feel like just another Mulan reboot. Yay for originality!


I highly encourage anyone considering it to watch this!! With 36 episodes total and great acting, this is a great show to binge and enjoy.



*minor spoiler ahead*

And of course.. there is a Happy Ever After ending!!! For those of you who are crybabies like I am and can't deal with sad endings... rest assured, this show will not disappoint you.

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Legend of the Female General is a must watch. Seriously.

Gosh, I have to say how wonderful this drama is. It’s an easy 10/10. One might say the story is somewhat cliché because of the tough female general trope, but gah—the acting, the drama, the chemistry—easily earn that 10/10 rating. I love their tandem so much. I haven’t watched their previous dramas, so I can’t possibly be biased. It’s purely, simply beautiful. It’s a must-watch.
My favorite drama to date has been Prisoner of Beauty, and I can say The Legend of the Female General is nearly on par with it.
The scenes where He Yan and her Dudu are together keep me smiling, and I end up hating the villains. 😆
But again, it’s not the story that hooks you—it’s their chemistry and the way they tell the story.
More drama for these two please ~~

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I've finally finished another drama. I've been busy with new dramas airing simultaneously these past few days, and they're all great!

This drama really impressed me! From the story, the female characters, to the moral advice. It's amazing! I'm at a loss, because there are so many great dramas this year!🔥🔥

I want to give a huge, huge shoutout to all the actors and crew of Legend of the Female General. Your drama is so amazing! Especially with the incredible chemistry between the two main leads, they truly look like a real couple. I'm amazed by their emotional acting. Not only that, they also worked very hard on physical training and martial arts to finally deliver an incredible performance, worthy of action actors! They both truly excelled in their roles as Xiao Jue and He Yan 💘🥺

I absolutely love all the OSTs for this drama! I sing and listen to them almost every hour. This will be added to my favorite playlist!❤️✨

Thank you so much for all your hard work, all the actors and crew of Legend of the Female General!👏🏼👏🏼💘❤️🔥

Good bye, Moon Couple! And I will miss you both!🥺🌕❤️

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i expected WAY MOREEEEE tbh

The start🗯️🗯️
After watching some modern Chinese drama I wanted to go back to my first love "chinese costume" drama and this looked like a perfect fit.
it looked like a dark, heavy military, political war drama...oh boy way I way off

Well, I guess I have to find something else to scratch that itch of mine.

This drama is not a "bad - bad drama". Believe me, after more than 200 shows I saw with my own eyes what "bad" looks like, on the other hand I also saw wayyyy better.

To sum it up with a few words: this drama is a nice collage of many other dramas without their more heavy emotional sides.

Did I feel bored? sometimes
Did I feel excited? Not even once.
Did a share I tear? A laugh? Certainly not.
Nice to watch but devoided of emotions.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT? If you don't really care about expectations and just wanna see a nice story , sure go ahead. Especially if you like the genre

If you are looking for excitement? Look somewhere else.
-–---------_----------------------------
I'll give you my opinion and only if you feel brave enough I invite you to read my rant🤣
The review section is the only place I can talk about these things.

...OK LETS START😁😁😁😁
I know I'll be pedantic but the more I watched the drama the more disengaged I became. I don't care about "fantastical" dramas. I'm fine with fighting scene that don't makes sense, but inconsistency with plot , logic and characters make me side eye a drama.

Drama🗯️🗯️
FL:(actress)
I saw her before in "back from the brink" and tbh I wasn't impressed. In this drama I think she did a bit better but her acting is "emotionless". I guess that's her style of acting.

FL: (character)
I like her strength, resilience and determination. Also her sweet side is enjoyable but I also find her to be dumb and unrealistic. ( RANT BEGINS 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

The setting reminds me of Mulan. A group of antagonistic comrades that become besties after sharing the danger, The bathing in disguise etc, even though I feel Mulan was more realistic. She was risking getting caught left and right, our FL is always safe. We don't see her struggle to conceive her identity. Menstruation? Chest binding? Toilet? Washing? They skip all of it.

When the FL gets replaced by her brother nobody is suspicious. Really? You don't see a difference in height? Voice? Size? The general appears with. No mask after a whole life hiding his face. No questions asked?
They could have chosen a more androgynous actora as her brother.
Putting appearance aside, how will their skill looked compared to one another? She won countless battles, he probably trained by himself.

Her character is supposed to be a simple soldier but she talks to her general like it's her sugar daddy. That's insane. You wouldn't talk to your general like that especially when they not close yet.

She keeps revealing her identity left and right never being too cautios. I don't get it. If the word of a female general gets out, sooner or later your brother will hear about it. Aren't you worried ?

I also find it weird that she never thinks about the fact that the general believe she basically killed his Father.

ML:
(Actor) I find him quite good. I just saw his works in "how dare you" and he does a pretty solid job in these costume dramas. No complaints.

(Characters) I feel compared to the FL character he makes more sense and is more linear.


Other characters:🗯️🗯️
The actors ( like them all, they all professionals).

Characters:
I feel no emotional connection to the characters. We are supposed to care about these people and even cry about their death but I didn't feel anything. The shifu, other soldiers, the princess , the school mates... I feel we didn't have enough interactions on screen to really care.

OBSERVATIONS WHILE WATCHING 🗯️🗯️
A weird combination of emotions. In one scene the FL is hurt and hugging a dead wolf and she immediately starts talking about love and valentine. What?😅 And tha6t not the only time they force "serious" speeches in the most insane moments.

The drama itself feels like a collage of previous shows. I could even pinpoint what specific scene was from where.

There is a lot of romance subplot we don't care about. The Chifu love story with the princess, their old classmate with the dancer, chu with the prime Mister daughter...


Fight scenes🗯️🗯️
pretty unrealistic but that's a perk of this specific genre.

Inconsistency 🗯️🗯️
I am at episode 22 and I don't even know what these people want.

Ok the ml wants his father's reputation to be restored but about the FL? She never talks about killing her brother or punishing her family. She just want to be a general. Ok, what does it mean? You want to go back to the capital? Work for the emperor?

The prime minister also has no clear direction. He wants every general to be gone but it seems he doesn't have anyone to replace them. I don't even know why he wants that. They never show us the emperor court. We don't know about any power plays except for the prime minister.
He s also colluded with a foreign country.🤷🏻

The prime minister pupil knows his master is a corrupted individual but he's willing to help him any way only second guessing his master when the prime minister "goes too far".

The Chifu dies in a very stupid way. He basically found out where the rebels came from and he didn't call anyone to help him. He fights dozens of warrior and dies.

We never see what is happening in the capital.

Ep 23. Too convenient girl that you start investigating after the general found out about your identity. Shouldn't you have started as soon as you left the temple?

Ep 23. I knew it!! Her brother heard about a female general!!!!

Cheese factor🗯️🗯️
Some scenes are so cheese.

After a battle the FL falls into a puddle of water deep 2 cm at best and they show us a scene where she is basically drowning 🤣🤣after ml saves her the camera shows us the most shallow water ever.

Ml asking the princess to keep fl identity a secret is hilarious. She s been going left and right talking about feminism. Everyone knows her face and these are wealthy people well connected to other officials and Nobles. Word will spread pretty fast.

The Xiao General revenge was so dumm. You send kids to die ever single day . Your son dying is a trap?


I just finished episode 22 and I m fine stopping here.
There is nothing holding me in place. Maybe I'll come back later...but I feel I am not missing out on anything exciting.

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