Melody of Golden Age

All Hail to the Great Chief Shen Du

I started watching this drama back in Sept 2024, but only watched like 30 minutes of it before moving on to another drama. I went back in May 2025, stopped watching it again and then a little bit in June, and I honestly felt bad because I had been sidetracked with so many dramas that I was waiting for. November 2025 came and I was like, you know what? I need to finish it now because I’ve been seeing a lot of good comments about this drama and I should definitely continue. I have watched Ding Yuxi in Love Game in Eastern Fantasy and Love You Seven Times and enjoyed watching his dramas. After finishing a few episodes, I really wanted to slap myself because why on earth did I waited so long to watch this beautiful drama?? The main character, Shen Du, is the great chief Shen Du aka The White Ghost of Dacang, the head of the imperial guards, and everyone is afraid of him. He looked really powerful here. Arrogant and domineering, but we always know why a character is like that. It’s definitely a facade. A barrier. I noticed how muscular he looked here compared to his older dramas. We also meet the female lead, Yan Xing (or Liuniang for some) is a brave little clerk of the Ministry of Justice. The FL is a brave little cookie, but every time she goes out on her own, she always gets herself in trouble. Her sister who was supposed to marry Shen Du, eloped with another man. To save the Yan family, she took her sister’s place. She knew Shen Du at the beginning of the story, but he acted like he didn’t know her. I love the ML because even though he found out that Yan Xing lied and hid some secrets from him, especially becoming a spy to track his whereabouts and activities, he understood why she did that. I love how jealous he gets when she mentions Pan Chi or whenever she goes out with him to investigate. Like that one time, Shen Du kicked Pan Chi and he fell inside the well. Hilarious. I love her family, they were all supportive. There were some deaths in the story and it was really heartbreaking. I loved everything about this drama. Can you imagine your whole family being annihilated but you had to choose another way to survive by denouncing your father. It must be so hard for Shen Du. Even with a tough exterior, he has a very good heart. I’m glad the empress trusted Shen Du. He did the right thing. I was so glad Princess of Valor and Prince Xian didn’t do anything to hurt Shen Du and Yan Xing. At first I was like, what are their agendas? Can they be trusted? The actor who played the villain, Lai, the black fiend, did an amazing job. He was ruthless and delusional. Ding Yuxi was awesome here with his sword fights. Awesome actor. Anyway, the ending was cute. We didn’t see any babies, but it’s okay. I highly recommend this drama. One of the best, in my opinion.

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Good one

Melody of the Golden Age — I liked the drama, especially the chemistry between the leads.
In the beginning, the male protagonist's character was rude and arrogant. He never spoke in a humble manner. He always carried an attitude on his face. Everyone was scared of him, and nobody praised him; they always said bitter words behind his back.
But this kind of behavior was only seen in the first few episodes. After getting married, he gradually became softer in his behaviour, though on the surface he seemed the same.
On the other hand, the female protagonist's character was humble and helpful. She was kind to everyone and never held grudges against anyone. She also had a past story with the male protagonist.

I liked the character of Lu Chui Chui as well and her love story.

I liked the performances by the leads and the emotions of love, hatred, and annoyance they expressed through their acting. I must say their expressions were incredible.

Overall, the drama is good, and I recommend it.

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The drama that deserved a chance

One of the best adaptations, from a less interesting book.
Neither the story (after reading) nor the male character particularly attracted me.

But, I watched it and fell in love with the lead pair. I started because I basically like romantic crime stories. I like it when the leaders are intelligent, naivety is not a sin, but I hate stupid characters.
I was not disappointed. The chemistry, the dialogues and the visuals, the costumes and the music are also perfect. I re-watched it several times even after The End. / I'll probably watch it a few more times.

Don't look if you like ML with another boat. (Because FL and ML's romance is the point, without that you will only see their faults)

faults: (and there are many) - The supporting characters are confusing (e.g. the queen, the best friend, the girl's father...etc)
- rough cuts / sometimes we think we missed something, or we skip time or because of cuts, hasty and funny

Just give the drama a chance....it's worth it, .... it's worth it, .....it's worth it....
Both the actors and the director put their heart and soul into it.
And because they managed to enchant: 10

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Me of the best cdrama ever watched

Melody of golden age is one of the best cdrama J have ever watched . This was my 2nd Chinese drama watched and I was captivated by its plot and ShenDu just from the 1st episode unlike other Chinese dramas where you need to watch few episodes to understand the plot this one is different from the rest . The plot is captivating , one of the oat popular overseas period dramas and the Male Lead actor plays this role perfectly as if he was born for this role . The Female Lead could have performed better but I’ll cut her a slack as she was very young when performing and her first on stage kid was in this very drama . The female lead plays seems to be more intelligent and use her own brains to resolve crime cases . The plot is fantastic . I recommend this drama to everyone who likes historical dramas and good acting .

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Ding Yu Xi Saved The Show

Honestly speaking, I could finish the drama because of Ding Yu Xi

I really dont understand why the mesmerizing and powerful MLs fall for stupid and good for nothing FLs, and then get themselves killed or become martyr.

The first half of the storyline was quite enjoyable, but the second hald didn't make any sense. The villain was like "yoo.. I have to show some stupid magic tricks with out any reason, cause I need to be evil"

No idea why they added some illogical plot in the villain's character arc. His grievance abd whole purpose was not justified.

The FL would have been long dead if the ML didn't save her for umpteenth time. At the end of the show, when the ML divorced her to save her from all the turmoil, she was like "okay, if he is saying all these, he must be an ungrateful and cold person. So lets divorce. " The great detective people admires, who can literally sniff the evidence became dumb, and accepted his husband to be a cold hearted person and just moved on. She did not even bother to think about why the ML is doing all these, even when everything was so evident.

The ML character was powerful, but gradually he became a lovesick teenager. But I must say Ding Yu Xi was stunning. His aura and gestures made everything believable. He literally carried the entire show. I loved his action scenes.

That chuichui character was the most irritating characters in the entire show.

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Give this show a chance

Spoilers in the third and fourth paragraph! Also my opinion for those who have not watched this show yet in the last paragraph (no spoilers there)

Okay, at first I started watching this show around january and i dropped it at the second or third episode because it was kind of boring. But after a month, all that was recommended was this damn show so I decided to give it another chance given the positive reviews and because I had a week break from school.

There’s many plot twists in this show, so rewatching would be boring at some points since you already know why some parts occurred, but mainly worthy of rewatch. I love Shen Dus actor here, I came from love game in eastern fantasy so his personality change was def smth. The female lead i have never watched, so this was my first time but she was super good at her role and beautiful as well.

I love how the ml slowly softened up to the fl, their romantic interactions and kissing scenes were amazing, as well as the times where things didn’t go as well such as the time where shen du had to divorce yang xing. I lowkey became furious as him but it had also made me realize just how well these actors played their parts. The part where she stabbed him made me super satisfied, and that was the moment where we got to known that she knew what he was up to.

I loved the fl personality and how smart she is, given that she is a detective after all. She stayed smart throughout the whole show which I was not expecting given some other shows which were disappointing. But overall this one did not disappoint whatsoever, I loved how smart she was and the fact that she was willing to take sm risks for her and the people around her.

I absolutely loved the side characters, as they brought a lot of comedic attitude. My fav was Pan Chi tbh, I liked how much he helped out and the fact that he was Chi Chi. The death of yun que and the yilang ren was where I had my first tears for this show, they definitely did not deserve to die but it was beautiful seeing their relationship.

In short, give this show a chance you won’t regret it whatsoever. It was one of the first historical c dramas without the fantasy and powers that I actually watched all throughout without going on my phone lol. The plot was super smooth and I understood what was happening. I also apologize is there’s any typos here as I had just finished the show and was so excited to write a review, which I had never done before for any other c dramas. (I have watched alot and this one definitely impressed me)

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A Lazy Copy& Paste Plot

ML is supposed to be a fierce ruthless no nonsense commander of the Imperial Security Bureau nicknamed White Ghost, feared by all in the realm while FL is a little no rank scribe at Ministry of Justice with extensive investigative skills. Their fates got entangled in an arranged marriage when FL’s sister got betrothed to ML with an imperial decree under the conniving Prime Minister’s workings. FL’s sister ran away with her beloved to escape the marriage and FL was forced to step up and replace her as bride to avoid the family being implicated. ML was never interested in the marriage, and as he did with all his previous brides, he tried to scare FL into running away. To his surprise, FL was adamant to stay as she was threatened by the Prime Minister to become his spy in the commander’s mansion. ML decided to let her stay to see what other tricks the Prime Minister had in store for him, as he too was investigating his family’s framing many years ago which he believed related to the Prime Minister. Cases came up one after another as ML and FL uncovered clues leading to the truth behind his family’s demise, and they developed feelings for each other in the process.

Honestly at first i was ok with the FL cuz this character seemed to be a brilliant and upright one. But as the story progresses, I find her extremely annoying because ML always ends up needing to save FL each time she goes on to investigate these cases. Apparently the FL isnt really smart, but just a stubborn damsel in distress who has a knack for investigating things. Her only skill is to find out the bottom of things, and not someone who can think a few steps ahead and cover her back while doing her thing. It’s truly annoying cuz she ends up getting in trouble every single time and implicates everyone around her.

As for ML, i first saw him in White Cat Legend and then in Love in Pavilion, and thought he is really not bad of an actor. But i think he did better in series where he doesnt have a love interest. And it doesnt make things any better when the FL’s character is too annoying and cry excessively. Many of the emotional scenes in here are not naturally conveyed, i failed to feel the sadness the characters are feeling as they cry, especially when the FL cry so dang much to the point of my annoyance. That is how detached the characters look for me. Excessive public display of affection between the main leads after the so called love confessions are also too over the top and looks much out of place in ancient time. As if the screenwriter was trying to force out the main couple’s love too much to the audience. Maybe even the screenwriter thought the actors dont have much spark between them so they plant this kind of excessive expression of love to fill in the void and convince the audience.

Overall, the only characters that are fun to watch had been Wu Da Ren (FL’s boss) and her mom! Those two are hilarious and i look forward to see them with each episode.

There’s also too many flashbacks and backstory of unimportant side characters that really don’t have any impact to the main plot other than just to lengthen it. The ending is also too predictable. The palace coup arc was like a copy&paste from other tv shows, it’s lazy writing on the screenwriter’s part. I don’t know how it went with the novel as i havent read it (and don’t intend to), so am not sure if the novel’s plot is as bad as the adaptation (cuz many adaptation tend to divert from the original novels).

Most painful to watch is the final sword fight between ML and the villain. I really think the increased speed just to show the fighters’ prowess is too excessive which made it look comical. ML had better fights in White Cat Legend and Love in Pavilion, so this problem here lies on the fight choreographer (if they even hired one) and the editing.

The ‘divorcing-FL-to-avoid-implicating-her’ is also too old of a plot. So old it has rusted! I am so disgusted at this type of plot, so i couldnt even finish episode 40 cuz I think the FL should give ML harder time before reconciling. If your spouse don’t think you can shoulder their burden with you, why bother being together at all? Sick of this lame excuse for love.

The songs are great though. But because I didnt like the story, I am not adding them to my playlist as to not remind myself of this show everytime it plays.

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WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!!!

This drama is absolutely amazing!
The actors were very natural at acting the story line was super intriguing as well. I loved the chemistry between the actors she is a scribe but acts kinda like an detective with the ml they both go on to find the truth but both of them have thier own secrets but they all come together. I loved this trope of cdrama, both the character falling in love was so natural and love how they both protect each other
But there are some werid things
1) the kiss ( I love u ding yuxi but your kissing is awkward lol but this doesn't really affect me that much neither to the story line or thier way of romance in the drama)
2) the events following the ending got me confused don't get me it's not bad or sad it's happy it's just like u finish watching it then go HUH? lol but still worth watching due to the storyline

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I don't understand why anyone likes this

I honestly do not understand why people give this show a rating that isn't garbage. All the reviews are about how The ML is the highlight of the show and how he is so good, and about how the female is so strong and capable. But the show starts off with the male lead shown to beat cruel and honestly evil. No of course they're going to towed all that back as the show goes on and they're going to show why he did these things and none of the reasons are good. The literal opening act for him was enjoying killing people not doing it because it was his job not doing it because he had to but enjoying it. And then he is repeatedly shown to enjoy inflicting cruelty on people including the woman who he has essentially forced to accept being treated like a piece of garbage. He's fully aware she does not have the ability to turn down the marriage he tries to force her out but if he does succeed her whole family will die so not exactly a good look. He disrespects her in literally every way a man could back in that time without actually raping her. And then he gives the idea that's what he's going to do because they haven't actually gotten married he just ignores the entire marriage process and declares that it's happened. He watches her drowning and just stands there. Sure he doesn't let her drown but a person who is capable of literally standing there and watching someone drown has serious problems. Now sure he thinks that she was sent in as a plant and to cause him problems which would explain some of what he does but it doesn't explain it all. The only way somebody acts like this is if they are legitimately a psychopath. I honestly hate that I wasted the time watching this because sure they eventually get to the loving and the caring but the foundation of this entire story is disgusting.

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