Gong Qiang Yan (2025)

Pretty Visually But Lacking In Story

If there is one word to sum up my experience finishing this drama it's "frustrated". I personally paid for the Express package to watch the final episodes in advance and never have I so much wanted my money back.

The show, after the odd opening scenes of the 1st episode, begins well enough and with a clear story. The FL is an assassin and is sent in by the Crown Prince to have her become the Emperor's (his father) Hostage Consort. From here the story progresses with her trying to find ways to free herself and her female assassin "sisters".

Here's the issue, while the show is very visually stunning, the plot tends to have a feeling of making it up as you watch. Most of the show is rather simple to follow at least, but by the time you reach the final episodes things just begin happening for seemingly no reason and fake-outs begin to take place.

By the time you reach the final episode you might be like me and no longer even care if the show is "pretty" any longer as you try very hard to make sense of ANYTHING being shown on the screen.

In my opinion, the best episodes are the FIRST 5 or 6 and the worst are the LAST 5 or 6.

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Quality Visuals, Poor Script

A previous reviewer summed it up quite nicely, it was well directed but the script was quite poor. The drama was visually stunning and didn't lose to a higher budget drama. It had quality costumes, makeup, hair, etc. It didn't look tacky at all.

As for the plot, it was quite simple. Nothing too original, but what really messed things up was the pacing of the drama. The first few episodes were quite well paced, but they definitely ran out of time at the end because a lot of corners were cut to make it on time. There were weird jumps in plot and off screen action (that was quite significant) because they needed like five more episodes. If they had paced the plot line better, I think the drama would have fared better than most of its web drama competitors and longer counterparts.

Most of the time, people look for a well done drama. It doesn't have to be too creative, just executed well. Especially for short web dramas, pacing of the plot is everything. If they had paced things better, there wouldn't have been much to complain about since developing the plot line into something complex wouldn't have been possible for the amount of time given.

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