A Dream of Splendor

An Underrated Masterpiece

Started watching this with no expectations and ended up finishing it in two days, not able to move on.

This drama explores the theme of human rights, social class, and women empowerment. Despite the heavy theme, it is packed in a slightly light manner with enough elements of humor and suspense to keep you entertained. engaged, and curious as to how the story folds out.

Zhao Pan Er is not your average Chinese drama female lead. She is a 24 year old woman with a past that puts her on the bottom of the social class. While the male lead, Gu Qian Fan, is also a man with a complicated past and a reputation feared by the public, not to mention, caught in a power struggle. Aside from them, there are also two other characters whose roles are pivotal to the theme of this drama, Song Yin Zhang and Sun San Niang, friends of Zhao Pan Er, each with their own struggles.

Rather than the ‘pretty’ parts of a woman, this drama features their struggles and how they empower one another. This drama doesn’t really delve much into the male characters aside from Gu Qian Fan, who’s the male lead. In terms of story, it was definitely well written and well paced. I do think that the ending could’ve been better though. I wish that we could see more happy moments between the leads and primary characters of the show. Also, I think that it’s a bit of a pity that Xu Ouyang served as one of the major character of this drama, only to disappear in the middle of the drama, then reappear as a major villain in the end. It left me with several questions. Although so, I do like and enjoyed how the story was written and unfolded.

All the actors also did very well in bringing their characters to life, especially the two leads. I would like to give credits to Liu Yifei for her detailed acting like when her character was surprised, it looked so real. I also liked how Chen Xiao made Gu Qian Fan’s character look so reliable and charismatic. Not to mention, the inexplicit facial expressions to show his admiration and love towards Zhao Pan Er, lovely! Jelly Lin also did a great job. As someone who plays a character with the most character development in the show, she did a really great job at portraying that naive, jealous girl turned mature, smart, independent woman. The change in her attitude and expression were evident!

All in all, this drama was entertaining, inspiring, and definitely keeps you hooked to see how it all unfolds!

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Simply put, it's good

Sure, there are some flaws, but they are minor. For the most part, the leads have a healthy relationship and they really give a sense of facing troubles together yet also respect and support individual pursuits and decisions. The court battles are only shown when they influence the leads' lives and relationships. All other political struggles are only mentioned in passing and that too only if they are relevant to the story.

Only the actions by characters considered main, i.e, ML, FL, other 2 FLs and that other guy who is kinda SML, since I don't know what else to call him, are shown in clarity. Meaning, the other characters' (ministers, officials, businessmen, etc.) actions and the reason/logic behind them, are generally left to be judged by viewers as they wish. I've seen the subtle behind the scenes in dramas before too and I think I like it. But the thing is, remember I said, "for the most part" and "minor flaws", I think the reason for that might be, leaving too many things in the dark can sometimes seem like a dramatic and compelling scene has a weak logic behind it. Or sometimes, the emphasis on subtlety, can even result in a scene not being compelling enough in the first place. But this is only if you want to over analyse stuff. Otherwise, like I said. Minor.

Some beautiful shots and scenes, very good acting, you can just tell that the main couple are fond of each other. Great sismance. The ladies strike out at first, with relationships, with life. But they find a way to stand on their own, they trust people, face consequences either good or bad, make friends and enemies, both individually and while together, fight amongst themselves too sometimes but spoiler ending, they still get back to sticking with each other <3

Another thing, there's no extreme evil being done or was done, (yes, I'm being vague, but if you get it, you get it) like is generally in many historical cdramas that focus on politics, or even personal vengeances.

Overall, pleasant drama.

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I felt a sense of calm when I watched this drama.

A simple story about the lives of 3 women struggling to make a living and overcoming the odds in the Eastern Capital, with focus on Zhou Pan’er (Liu Yifei).

What was good:
• Refreshing storyline with no clichés in the romance
• Good communication between the main lead couple
• All three female leads were strong and independent
• Although there were some plot holes, the art of tea, pipa-playing, dances were all portrayed beautifully. Something that I seldom see in other Chinese historical dramas.
• Beautiful cinematography because of the many canals in the drama. Lots of dating scenes and even private conversations between officials were made in the beautiful boats on the canals or by the canals. Something refreshing to see. I like their boats as well, so apt to have intimate, private conversations.

What could have been better:
• The last few episodes dragged a little

This drama did not have much ‘fighting, adventures, angst’ one might see in a historical drama, it was more of character-driven than plot-driven. The aesthetics of the entire drama impressed me, the beautiful cinematography with the canals as the main backdrop and the gentle demeanor of the female lead, Zhao Pan’er (Liu Yifei) who always spoke so gently and elegantly in the drama.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama, it was one of those dramas I felt a sense of calm watching it, maybe because of the beautiful canals, the water did have that effect, because of the way Zhao Pan’er spoke, because there was not much angst in the drama, a combination of all these, but definitely it was not boring at all.

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3 Inspiring women fighting relentlessly for their rights. + Savoury & Mouthwatering kissing scenes.

God knows how this pair drained all the sweetness in me... They're sucking it every coming episode that I was all dried-up and left with no juice to squeeze during the finale. Hahaha!

This drama got tons of positive qualities but something that stands out to me was its plot. It went on in an orderly manner with proper phasing which helped the story not look clichė at all; and the way they fall in love gradually through their simultaneous interactions made their relationship more natural and acceptable.

The outstanding and flawless chemistry the Main leads brought to this drama is simply remarkable. Their casual 'fight-slash-flirting' scenes is too much for the heart. Not to mention the adoration and hearts you can see through the MLs eyes whenever he's looking at FL made it even more romantic— He's too smitten and it resonates. + The FLs clever way of solving things made the story more interesting and fun to watch.

I was full of giggles all the time and my adrenaline felt exhausted from running everytime they're flirting on screen. Like they were created to make me feel jealous and envious. Haha!

Another thing that made this drama standout from the rest is its great production design & beautiful costumes— Their styling is extremely pleasing and god knows how enchanting they all look with proper hairstyle, make up and clothing. I also love the color grading of this drama. Very warm, smooth and comfortable. It helps to escalate a lot of things to great heights specially with the overall look and feel of the drama.

One last thing that made this drama fun to watch is its light yet solid story progression and great character development. It never felt too rushed and forced so the characters got to grow and shine on their own. Although it was not always rainbows and colors for the leads, but they made sure that they improve and learn from all of it; and that made the story more interesting and enjoyable.

Something worthy to mention is the great dubbing. Finally for once. I felt comfortable and satisfied with how their mouth synchronized with the actual sound. So tired of other ridiculous ones.

P.S. The most ridiculous scene goes to the Final Episode when the ML was trying to feed the FL the circular coin-size pill using his mouth. The FL was laying by her chest so how the heck does she even swallow that? Hahaha!

Story - 10, The story was well created with good phasing. A comfortable run I would say. I was never bothered and disappointed of anything. + I just love the positivity and fun it brought to me the whole time I was watching it.

Acting - 10, Flawless and beyond convincing. Chen Xiao look so smitten. Like, was he even acting? I felt like he enjoyed it more than anyone. Hahaha! Also, Liu Yifei's excellence when it comes to controlling her facial expression made her character delightful and eye candy to watch. + All of the actors and actresses really did well in expressing and delivering their roles through their good acting and portrayal.

Music - 9.5, Decent BGM overall. It added lots of emotions and helps the overall feels of this drama. Good choice of songs and proper music placement I would say.

Rewatch Value - 10, Highly Recommended!! I finished it in over 3 days... The fastest since last year considering its 40 episodes. Every bits of it is worth watching.

Overall - 10, I would never have it any lesser. Everything is great. Not to mention how they were able to create this story without staining it with clichė and tropey plot. A drama that's worth every single second of my time.

IF you find my review helpful please let me know.

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A mature, well-written romance

The highlight of the drama was the main couple. The romance was written in a thoughtful way showing mature interactions and organic development between two adults falling in love. Their conversations were genuine and meaningful. He did not treat her like a delicate flower and they had mature conversations about issues outside their relationship. They were equals. The only thing I didn't like was the misunderstanding trope in the second half, which led to Gu Qianfan avoiding her, making him look cowardly and weak. This was completely contrary to his character because he was portrayed as a no-nonsense straight arrow who did not avoid facing problems. Other than that, this was a beautifully written romance.

One minus was that there wasn't much of a plot. The storyline with the painting felt like an afterthought. Most of the plot focused on the political struggles between various government factions. Ouyang Xu ending up the endgame villain felt nonsensical. He was a weak villain, far from a mastermind, who was mostly absent from the story. At the end, he was the only one who was punished and the real masterminds went unscathed. Making Ouyang the scapegoat felt like a cop out from writing an actual plot and delivering a proper closure to the story.

Some of the secondary characters were fun. I liked that Yinzhang finally grew up because I was tired of her immaturity and entitlement. Chi Yan was over-the-top and only served as comic relief. And, again, none of the villains, except Ouyang, got punished. Shen Ruzuo just disappeared from the story after he tried to set up Yinzhang. He did something reprehensible, but nothing happened to him, which was a huge letdown.

Overall, I enjoyed the drama just for the romance between ML and FL. Everything else was forgettable.

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Great story that stumbles before the finish line

A Dream of Splendor is a story of the sisterhood of 3 women who strive to live independently and proudly, despite their position in society. All 3 women have their own stories of struggle in the path to getting where they are now, some of them (*cough* Yinzhang *cough*) are deeply flawed in the beginning but through various hurdles end the story with great character development.

STORY
There is a great combination of romance, comedy and angst in this story. I must emphasize the comedy because not many people mention it, the comedy in this was really to my taste and were some of my favourite parts.

The first 30 episodes are great, in fact I think it was actually steadily improving as it went on . Then we hit the part that sent the story rating straight down to 6.0. The drama was going so well, it wasn't too trope-y, the main couple was actually communicating, they had incredible chemistry. It's important to remember that both ML and FML are both very intelligent people, but when we hit the last 10 episodes, we reached trope-land. Miscommunication like no others and complete idiocy from the ML.

Here's the main spoiler part; FML's father was demoted and their family was given pariah status. After they get together, the ML finds out his father is responsible for the demotion. The same ML who was preaching about communication a few episodes ago starts avoiding her! At the same time, our very independent FML suddenly depends on the ML for money to carry out a very risky business deal. Our extremely intelligent ML decides to leave the money (the old cash note) near an open window. Under an empty vase. On a stormy night. And doesn't tell anyone he left the money. Smart, right? The obvious happens and the paper flies away and gets hidden by other documents, FML in trouble because without this money she (+ the other women) lose everything they own.

Naturally she's mad at him. Despite there being a series of dumb decisions that lead up to this, once she finds the money he left behind, all is forgiven... Something like "It's not that he didn't want to see you, he was scared of seeing you" is said and then they got back together, no discussion about what happened.

And some parts of the plot are badly rushed. Some arcs have no satisfying ending, some have no ending at all, it's just.. there. Especially re: the relationship of the ML and his father (+ uncle). Didn't like how quickly the empress was convinced to come to the good side either. Writing this review made me realise that I kind of filtered out some stuff while watching it.

Also I found Yin Zhang annoying af for most of the series and I couldn't stand her scenes. She did improve majorly at the end though.
Sanniang had the best storyline and I sincerely rooted for her. Best character easily.


ACTING/CAST
Great acting. I didn't enjoy Liu Yifei's acting in the beginning but she grew into the role quite quickly. Had amazing chemistry with Chen Xiao, their romance was just top tier. All of the cast did great. Shout out to the actor that played Chi Pan, thank you for the great comedic relief during the main angst session.

MUSIC
The OST was pretty great, ended up adding a couple of them to my playlist.

REWATCH VALUE
Depends on whether you can stomach the dumb conflicts for a second time lol. Think the storyline suits a rewatching though. Just not for me.

OVERALL
Just give it a shot! My review sounds overly negative but there's a reason why the ratings are high, the acting, the first 2/3 of the plot and the cinematography are also pretty good. But also be aware of how frustrating the last 10 episodes will be.

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Magnificent Story and Great Acting

I loved this drama from beginning to end. First the 3 leading ladies strong, smart and would not let anyone stop their dream. A fourth young lady get added for more adventure and cute romance. Second the twist and turns that happens to these ladies through out the drama, makes the drama intense and you want to keep watching. The romance that the female leads experience, the good and the bad. The leading male that is chivalrous and will not give up of his love for the leading female. The chemistry between the leading female and male was great. The trust that they show for each other you can feel it in their acting. A great story and wonderful acting. It's been a long time since I enjoy a long drama.

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An extremely moving and well-executed story of women empowerment! Lived up to the hype.

There were a lot of things about this drama that made me enjoy it, but I’ll point out the most significant and near-perfect ones in my personal opinion. First is the fact that they claimed to be a drama about women empowerment, and **actually** addressed the female struggle throughout various points of the drama. From beginning to end, it was clear that this was the main focus and it was carried out excellently. The girls went had to go through several harsh events, the most vicious being the one where they get booted out of the city and completely covered in garbage, and they had to fight tooth and nail to the very end to earn themselves a position in society. And you know what, they made it. I was so proud of them by the end of the drama, and found myself attached to their sisterhood. A+++ for this.

Second is the pacing for the romance between Gu Qianfan and Zhao Pan’er. I thought it was all aptly done and push came to shove at exactly the right time. And everything was very in tune with the characters’ personalities as well. They never compromised the character’s core values for the sake of romance.

Third, Liu Yifei’s acting and the characterisation of Zhao Pan’er just deserves SO much praise. Gentleness is almost Yifei’s brand, and coming from Meet Yourself I was a bit worried as to whether she would be able to act distinctively as Pan’Er, or if it would just be like watching Xu Hongdou with her hair up in Song Dynasty hanfu.

But she completely blew me out of the water with this character. Two characters that similarly have such complex emotions but she’s able to act out subtle differences. Even the way she cries is different in this drama – because in MY she’s mostly grieving, and here she most often shed tears because of heartbreak.

I also love how honest Pan’er is with herself. How she’s able to show that vulnerability, and pick herself back up whenever she gets knocked down. And she’s been doubled down upon so many times. How she allows herself to eventually lean on her sisters, it also didn’t take much for her to have faith and trust in Yinzhang. She’s compassionate, loyal, and devoted. The writers clearly took time to tell her story and show her growth which is something I absolutely loved.

Last is the wardrobe, mostly for the women. They were able to pick styles that suited each female character so well. I am impressed by how much each garment complimented Liu Yifei in particularly. All the colours she wore brought out so much vibrancy and spirit from her. My favourite was probably the green dress she wore in early Episode 19. So gorgeous.

Overall really loved this drama, though there are a handful of minor vices that hinder it from being a complete 10/10 for me. Really open to discussing the drama / actors so shoot me a reply or message if that’s something you’d be interested in :) Menghualu will forever hold a special place in my heart.

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So many good things about this drama!

I’ll keep it brief.

This was a very great story, very strong. The plot was well thought out. The visuals were well done and I appreciate the natural coloring of the sets as well as the actors not having overdone make up. I enjoyed the plot and all of the ups and downs that they went through. The plot maintained consistency, as I didn’t find many holes or unanswered questions. The acting was amazing. Everyone did a really good job in their role. I definitely enjoyed the romance in this story as it seemed more real and the two leads had very strong chemistry.

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One of the few C-drama that has no mess ending

I love Chinese consume drama. The only concern I have watching them is uncertainty of final episode. It’s so typical to see ;

*cliff hanging
*confuse ending, sometime I don’t understand the ending meaning at all. I always look for recaps and reviews online and need to find out exactly how it ended and meaning of ending
*rushed to close the story, so last couple episodes look like squashed into just 5min
*end up having TWO finals , meaning is they have one more extra episode. Always one is sad ending and extra is happy ending. Why do they make two endings like that?

Many of the C-drama have very strange way to finalize the story but I still love them. Luckily this drama had very straightforward ending and I didn’t feel any rushing to close the story. It’s based on the real novel and screen write must have done a very good job to end the story. That’s why after the last episode, I felt warm feeling and very satisfied feeling for a while. I didn’t even check the recap nor review for this drama. That’s is very rare !

What else are good to be 10;

*2 main CP’’s chemistry is so good. Their long history of acting experience and they must got along well playing the characters
*sub-main characters and others such as Emperor contributed the very well actings. Most of all, all actors acting were very natural.
*beautiful consume and architectural set up
*beautiful OST
*CG and colorings were amazing. Felt like watching movie

Core story of this drama is romance between FL and ML, but at the same time side characters, such as two other sub-female leads’ friendship with FL and 3 females’ determinations to beat the social discrimination was definitely FEEL GOOD drama for a female audience like me. This is one of the TOP 3 drama I watched in 2022.

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Started out well then turned into some pointless romantic drama.

Chemistry and romance are fine and good but it shouldn't be the core of a truly good historical. Sadly this one is precisely that. A barebones romantic drama dress up as a historical. If you are expecting an engaging story from start to finish then prepare to be disappointed. This one had a good and interesting start. Sadly the writer lost any sense in writing a proper story and instead it became some lousy romantic drama with LYF playing the "I'm always right" Miss Perfect female lead to the hilt. She had great chemistry with ML. That is obvious but it's clearly not enough to warrant for this to be considered a truly good drama.

I was expecting this drama to reach heights but it never got more exciting than the first few episodes. The writer tried to write in an all encompassing and mysterious under current but even that fizzled in the end and became a complete fluke. From the first moment one would expect a great political conflict brewing in the imperial court. It look like it was headed that way, sadly it never materialized. We did get the Gao girl acting outrageously, screaming at the emperor to plead for the FL. That scene was probably inserted to quench the thirst of those yearning for political drama. I was rolling my eyes at that nonsensical and ridiculous scene. In the end all that scheming in the imperiaI court was just use as a plot device to get rid of the FL's former fiance who turned evil. I was waiting and waiting for the story to move forward and it never did. The poor attempt at court politics they managed to throw in the end was a sad excuse for not writing a complete story that was consistent with the story they started.

I was not envisioning for the story to turn out this way. Just literally meddling for most of the drama and then they suddenly remembered they had a story to finish. What was the purpose of introducing all these characters of the imperial court when the writer had no intention of fleecing out their story and roles properly. The sassy waitress, the joker guild leader and his fat sidekick got more airtime than I had expected. They had zero relevance to the overall backstory but got extra time because of the writer's laziness to build up this drama to a good end.

The writer was just obviously time wasting and extending episodes until they got to the end. Three quarters of episodes spent on pointless business drama and the FL acting mighty and standing on a pedestal towards everyone. Cross her or you'll be sorry. If the writers thought they could get away with relying on her romantic entanglement with the ML to carry this drama they are really big chancers. Sorry I am not so gullible to be satisfied with how the story went about and ended.

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Passing time is a kind of splendor

Actually, finished watching this a while ago , just didnt have enough motivation to come to MDL to rate this and review. It is just another series to tick off for me, not much to rave on (good or bad!).

This is my first finished story of Liu Yi Fei, started on her and YY’s Once Upon A Time drama before, but cannot continue on. Maybe because it was a fantasy (and i didnt do that well with fantasy genre), her chemistry with YY was also not that much for me to continue on. LYF has certain unique voice to her character (i assume it’s her own real voice since it is the same in ADOS and OUAT) and initially it doesnt click with me much but then i grew used to it. Chemistry is there between her Zhao Pan Er and Chen Xiao’s Gu Qianfan, but not that sizzling for me. Is it bad that i found i prefer their relationship while they are bantering more than after they get together officially?

Plot is so and so, especially a lot of plotholes towards the end. Making Ouyang Xu as the last boss for the couple to hurdle over (when he was such a weak villain imho) , the writer didnt even tie up what happen with the so called power fight between the scholar faction leader and GQF’s father’s faction. They all vanished under Ouyang Xu’s arc. Plus, initially they describe GQF’s Capital Security Office as an entity that is powerful and GQF himself as the mighty ‘Living Devil’. But by the second half of the story, all those went down the drain and GQF is suddenly weaker than ever and the Capital Security Office is hardly with power enough to do a damn thing. Lol.

And where should i start with Song Yingzhang? Lol. This is the character that annoyed me the most. Time and time again she made the same mistake and time and time again she was forgiven, given a new book to start over. Luckily she ended up relatively fine at the end. Another character that i find annoying and no much point despite his quite extensive screen time from the beginning is chi pan. I am not even sure what is his character’s value in the plot honestly, except in the end when he ended up hiring the girls as managers to the restaurant. Lol.

OST are not that memorable, i didnt even try to go to youtube to search for the ost after finishing this drama like what i usually do with other dramas which ost stood out to me during watching.

All in all, this is an okay drama for me. Good enough to finish from start to finish once, but highly likely not for a rewatch. Nothing that is triggering my bad button too much but leaves me nothing too excited as well. On to the next show!

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