Inescapable love and hate! A Chinese historical "slap/kiss" drama
Note: If you're not a fan of this kind of romance story, then please don't watch. This kind of drama is not for you. This drama is for those who are entertained from the absolute chaos, messiness, and sheer ridiculousness from a dark twisted toxic relationship. This is for fans of the "slap/kiss" genre, which has a lot of physical forcefulness from male lead toward the female lead, angst, and twists!We've got a beautiful and cunning female lead who is trying to survive and be free.
We've got a pushy, overbearing male lead who gets jealous and crosses boundaries and is trying to trap the female lead.
The story follows Shen Qingtang's attempts to escape while Pei Congzhi tries to ruin her plans and keep her by his side. Meanwhile, there's a sweet second male lead who is loving to Shen Qingtang and a scheming and jealous second female lead engaged to Pei Congzhi.
There are several interesting plot points throughout, especially in the first 2/3 of the drama. It's especially well done at showing how Shen Qingtang is not some innocent and naive girl, but uses her image to her advantage. She's honestly the most interesting character in this drama because she's self-aware of her situation and how the male lead's kind of love is suffocating. You really root for her, especially with how many wrongs she endures from others and the male lead.
The male lead is consistently overbearing for most of the drama. He has a few rare soft moments. He has moments that he's actually truly misunderstood by the female lead. But, for the most part, he just does a lot of wrong things to trap female lead. His growth comes quite late in the story, unfortunately.
The last 1/3 of this drama is especially shaky toward the end. The scriptwriters seemed to have rushed the last few episodes by leaning into cliche tropes and confusing storylines that don't get tied up well.
So, this drama started pretty strong in terms of being intense and setting up the stakes. But the ending doesn't match the tone it set in the beginning. Ultimately, I couldn't give this drama a higher score due to the male lead's lack of growth and the rushed final episodes.
But, I think you may still enjoy this drama if you like this kind of genre, if you like the actors, and if you like the cinematography! It's a visually pretty drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
YeeeY give us NOTHING
I don’t have any beef with the actors , they did their jobs but hell no, don’t ever give us this plot again.I was expecting something a little spicy and logical, but instead they handed us a giant red flag wrapped in severe obsession.
I love Hu Yi Yao and her dominant, rich-lady energy, but this helpless damsel character? Meh. She’s gorgeous, so I tolerated it, but obsessed? Yeah, no.
The real issue? The story straight up tanked it. Sure, thank god they’re not actually siblings, but the way the ML acted made me wanna throw up. He’s not the reddest red flag I’ve ever seen, but he’s definitely not making it onto my "Delulu Hot ML Characters of 2025" list.
And don’t even get me started on 2ML, looked like a boy, acted like a boy. Zero appeal.
The ending? Those last two episodes? Even the director looked like they were sprinting to finish and slapped whatever they could together.
That random amnesia plot twist? Cringe to the heavens.
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Opinions do vary
This mini drama was absolutely fantastic! I enjoyed every second of it.The ML did some questionable things but never out of hate everything was out of love and his need to keep her safe and after finding out her real identity I can understand why he did the things he did to keep her by his side.
Did he go about it the right way? Absolutely not. Could everything they went through have been avoided? Yes, like most misunderstandings in most dramas a simple conversation would've worked wonders. But then where would the drama be?
It was one giant misunderstanding after another. One of the first things she thinks she sees is him doing something bad, instead of asking she immediately assumes he did it and never once questions that belief. And that sets the story for why she's scared of him. If for one second she'd stopped and asked instead of assuming everything would've been different.
In the beginning he lies and admits to doing something he didn't do, So why did he lie? To convince her she was unfit to marry someone else so she would stay by his side.
Is the ML toxic? Opinions do vary. I thought he came off as a controlling a** because he was obsessed with loving her, and keeping her by his side to keep her safe. We find out over the course of the drama that he was never taught what love was and that there was a right and a wrong way. And unlike the ML in Circle of Love (who most everyone would agree was 9th level circle of hell toxic) everything this ML did was because he loved her (not saying it was right just saying it was never done from a position of hate),
So should you watch it? Well that depends on your tastes. If you like your ML so in love with the FL that it borders on obsessive love, if you like a ML who's passionate, aggressive and willing to do anything, whatever he has to in order to keep her safe and by his side, if you like a FL who reacts first instead of asking why, a FL who has to be rescued almost every single time she tries to run away, with a great HE then boy oh boy is this the drama for you!
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Good story but loverelatieship is toxic
Good story. But you must love a toxic lovestory.He loves her and did things out love. But locked her in cage and rape her is my opion toxic. But i love her how she fight to be free. Most everbody in manor bullies her. Not sad ending. Happy that he saw he did thing wrong at the end
I want her see in moderne drama. I only know costume drama
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Worth watching for some
Edit - I write my reviews live when watching dramas that doesn’t have many to no reviews.(Paragraph “story” has a bit of spoilers but can be the story plot not mentioned by MDL)
A short yet long drama that’s perfect for people who want a drama that is quick without the storyline being a rush.
Duration - Its 24 episodes with them being 13 minutes long like MDL says. Although one YouTube channel makes it 6 episodes with each around 40 minutes long.
Story - A storyline with obsessiveness in it. The male lead at first forces his adoptive sister to be his wife. There is a lot of unrequited love between the support roles which is a classic.
Visuals and acting - It’s pretty good and I don’t see any bad quality in it for a drama not that popular. The visuals are great and the female lead is really pretty.
Genre - It’s a historical romance drama with lots of obsessiveness from the male lead.
Music - There is a small OST to the drama but I can’t remember if it was played it often even though i watched it recently.
Overall - It’s worth watching for an unrushed storyline that is not too long or short. Not one I would recommend adding to the top of your list.
You can watch this drama on YouTube and bilibili. Search up “Once upon a dream chinese drama” and it will pop up!
Happy watching! 💝
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"Shadowbound Siblings, Rivals in Vengeance, Joyful & Sorrowful Lovers
is the tale of "Once Upon a Dream" where the orphan female heroine QingTang dreams of her gurdian/older brother Pei Cong Zhi (not blood related) who took her in at her most desperate moment when she was eight years old, gets caught up in a erotic dream where he seduces her, but then the dream takes on a darker turn where he locks her up in a cage- the so called Golden Love Cage. Little does she know, that this dream would end up really happening.Chinese Dramas really deliver on angst that just leaves you dumbfounded with shock, and this drama is one of them. I cannot`t rate it any less since i found it greatly entertaining and touching in a twisted sort of way. The actress portraying the heroine is so beautiful and i was happy to see her since i also had seen her in "Bound by Sin" before and she is so great at portraying calculating characters. In this story she desperately wanted to be free and found the hero`s love suffocating. CongZhi is a man who does not know how to love, since no one had ever shown it to him. He hurt her a lot in his way of trying to keep her,he could be so viscous and cruel..no wonder she wanted to escape his clutches. He is one of the most possessive heroes, and he deserves to be on that list.The way his eyes watched her, always...ah my heart!!Even if it was in his motive for loving her, he only pushed her further away. The way these two took over in their every scene, clashing and challenging each other...their fights are awesomely fierce and the way he ALWAYS KNEW what she was planning ahead,lol. She never could trick him, since he is the master of all tricksters. This is one of those great dark love-stories, and it is unforgettable!
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