How Dare You!?

Really fun rom-com drama! Rushed ending.

Allow me to say what I've been wanting to tell everyone first. Because this was such a good drama and I really liked the osts, I decided one day to watch the ending credit scene ( you know the one that plays after every episode ). I don't usually watch the opening and ending credit scenes but since I really liked this and wanted more, I started to watch it and OMG ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME. THERE ARE SPOILERS AT THE ENDING CREDIT SCENES OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENES OF THIS DRAMA, LIKE IM TALKING ABOUT WHO WILL DIE IN THE FUTURE. I don't know why they did it this way but it was really maddening that I just got spoiled like that.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed this one, just from the trailer alone I already knew it was gonna be a banger. When I started the drama I got even more hooked and really liked the plot and the rom com aspect of it. Honestly this was such a fun watch that I can recommend it to mostly everyone. The Osts, the script, the characters, a lot of it are really good. Although I would say the Young King and Crown prince really threw me off coz I don't know if its a back story or simply just happening now. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

The only other problem I had with this drama is that after the mausoleum arc, it kinda started to go down. I think it was a little rush near the end and the drama could have done better had it gotten more episodes to it to expand more on the story. But overall a really good and fun cdrama to watch. But the spoiler containing ending credit scenes and the rushed ending and badly executed ending really threw me off this. Overall 9.0. I would've given this a 10 as well only if not for the things i mentioned.

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A comedic drama with heartfelt moments and a supporting cast deserving its own story

For me, the side-characters Mr. Bai and the scholars were the breakout stars of this drama. I could watch a few extra episodes only with the scholars. It's been quite some time since I last cared about side characters in a drama or truly any TV-Show to this extend. The romance was alright but certainly simply a more interesting lead dynamic at the start. The leads are lovable, but I didn't really care about it compared to the scheming and the drama surrounding the nation. Therefore, during most of the last episodes I skipped some scenes.

The Qiang state being behind most schemes was an interesting addition given its presence in both the Xia and Yan state harem. I would have liked to see Qian explored more. Even if the leads would have just found out the Qiang state is the scapegoat of the original story and then had hit like an invisible barrier when trying to communicate with Qiang because the state itself was never written into the original story. Basically, I think it would have been interesting to see more "out-of-bounds experiences" given the talk about 2D and higher level characters. Why shouldn't "2D places" exist too?

Despite skipping through some scenes, this is a drama that made me cry and laugh in equal measure. I actually teared up a few times and that usually only happens once when it's a good drama. As stated before, they truly had a great supporting cast, only FL's maids - both Mei and Hua Hua - were a bit too canon fodder flavored. Speaking of "canons", Mr. Bai's specifically designed arrows were great. The seizing of the capital was a fun action sequence.

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A fun story that gets better the more you dive in.

First things first, in terms of accessories, This drama was on point. I've been slightly annoyed how almost every historical chinese drama I watch always has overrated accessories. This one though was perfect, the FL's over the top accessories make sense because she is literally a concubine in the palace, and every scene makes sense, she is accessorized when is needed to be, and not accessorized when it's clearly unwanted. So genuinely amazing work from the team who picked the accessories.

Now Story, this was very cute. They truly felt like besties who were making mischief at some points and overall just trying to protect each other since they are the only 2 who got transmigrated from their world.
I like in a way the fact that you can see just how badly the FL struggled when she first came to the world of the novel and how even though she kept calling them 2D characters, she truly couldn't fathom the idea of anybody, no matter how random they are, dying. That's kind of what exposed the ML since almost the beginning. He had gotten accustomed to that life after years of being there and he knew that the slightest weakness would make him more prone to attacks.

I love the FL's character growth in which she truly stopped considering the world fake and realized that she was dealing with people who might be from another world, but are just as real as her. We see this most clearly in her scenes with the scholars. All the deaths when nearing the end of the drama felt so..relevant and meaningful (I'm so glad not all of the scholars died it would have been so disappointing)

So all in all, I truly did enjoy this, the plot was fun, the characters were properly created, and the good acting was the cherry on top.

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A Beautiful Pairing in a Flawed but Interesting Series

I was genuinely excited to watch this series because of this particular pairing. I’m not usually a big fan of transmigration plots, but the strong chemistry between the leads and the powerhouse cast convinced me to give it a try.

Overall, the story has a unique concept and could have been incredibly engaging — but unfortunately, the execution fell short. The editing felt uneven, and the pacing of how the story unfolded made it hard to stay fully invested. I struggled through several parts and often felt tempted to skip scenes. The prologue of Zang Shan, which I know is meant to be important, was difficult to follow and connect with since it appeared only in scattered episodes. There were also many conflicts, villains, and side characters introduced throughout the story, to the point that I forgot some of them by the time the ending came.

There were moments when I found myself browsing on my phone while watching, which to me is a sign that some scenes could definitely have been trimmed or tightened.

But despite its weaknesses, the casting is truly the saving grace of this series. Every actor — even the supporting ones — delivered credible and compelling performances.
* The actor who played Prince Duan was outstanding: charming on the surface yet convincingly villainous.
* The actress for Xie Yong Er also did a wonderful job.
* And both actors who portrayed the male and female versions of Bei Shu were an absolute delight to watch.

The Main Leads
The biggest joy of this drama is undeniably the main couple. Their chemistry feels natural, warm, and deeply comfortable — like they fully understand their characters and each other. Some of the early comedic scenes felt a bit awkward, but as many great actors say, comedy is one of the hardest genres to master, so that’s understandable.

I’ve always been a fan of Wang Chu Ran — beyond her stunning beauty, she consistently chooses roles that showcase her strengths. I genuinely don’t understand why she receives so much hate simply for being beautiful; if anything, she continues to prove her talent and versatility with every role.

Cheng Lei, however, was the biggest surprise for me. I had only seen him before in The Legend of Female General, where he didn’t stand out as much. But in this series, he delivered a real breakthrough performance. His role required him to portray a wide range of personas — tyrant, cheeky, apathetic, flirty, authoritative, vulnerable, furious — and he transitioned between them effortlessly.

One moment he’s a playful, lovestruck CEO Dan; the next, he becomes a terrifying emperor capable of commanding fear. His emotional control in the scene where Wan Yin goes missing — shifting from a desperate man begging Mr. Bei to save the woman he loves, to an intimidating ruler — was particularly memorable.

And his chemistry with Wang Chu Ran? Off the charts.
WCR has played flirty, vixen-type roles before, but here she truly embodied the character of You Wan Yin — both demonic and angelic, regal yet deeply human. Together, they felt like a genuine married couple, not just romantic leads.

Final Thoughts
Despite the messy execution of the plot, the performances of the main leads: Cheng Lei and Wang Chu Ran — alongside the strong supporting cast — made the series worth watching. I would love to see these two reunited in another project, preferably one with stronger writing and direction that can fully showcase their incredible acting range.

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Watchable, but not as good as the donghua

I absolutely adored S1 of this donghua/anime, which is funny and sweet. While waiting for S2, I went ahead and read the novel. I found still funny but somehow a lot less charming, and I actually soured a little on the story after that.

Given this history, it’s difficult for me to rate this drama on its own merits. Not only is it hard to look past differences and comparisons- and I do think it falls significantly short of the donghua- but I also can’t un-know what I know. Maybe I would have liked this show better if I didn’t already know what would happen... or maybe, if the show had been better, I would have still liked it a lot. Who knows.

Since I can’t be objective, I’ll be brief (by my standards, hah). The FL is cute and sensible, and it’s nice that she has “modern” values- this means she dislikes death, innocent people suffering, etc just as much as we audience do. The ML is a little darker, but he’s always on her side even if keeping secrets. Their dynamic is (or is supposed to be) that of playful co-conspirators, which is cute to watch.

There are likeable side characters, and the villains are easy to hate. The humor is pretty good at the beginning but mostly fades away by about halfway. The plot is basically palace politics, but there are some clever elements like the two layers of transmigration, how the protagonist of one story can turn out to be the antagonist of the next, and the way their modern experiences are woven in. I like that the transmigration is addressed directly as being lonely and scary, which also makes you glad they have each other.

All this sounds not too bad, but in the end I couldn’t make myself care about the characters and I wasn’t really rooting for them- either with each other or against their enemies. So it was just not that interesting or captivating.

The acting is alright. I think Wang Churan could work on her expressions a bit. She seems to do a lot of gazing prettily, but I would have preferred a more down-to-earth, spunky Yu Wanyin. Cheng Lei is fine but I didn’t feel much for him or his character. I also had a big problem with the voice acting. Way too many breathy little noises- especially, but not limited to, the FL.

The music is pretty good, both songs and BGM. The costumes also look nice. Overall the show is decent, but as somebody who came in knowing the story, I was pretty bored and watched the whole thing at accelerated speed.

And because I can’t help it, here’s my comparison with the donghua and the novel. I place the drama somewhere in between in terms of enjoyability. It somehow misses a lot of the charm and lightheartedness of the donghua. The drama version FL is a lot less endearing, and the ML (who’s dark side is significantly toned down) is less interesting. I went back to watch the donghua after the drama and immediately felt much more attached to both characters.

The drama of course has a longer runtime. Most of the extra material in the first half, as far as I can tell, is people speaking slowly, and drawn out scenes meant to play up the romance. I thought that was unnecessary and makes their relationship less cute; I prefer its more subtle development in the donghua. As for the novel, it explains things better, but it’s the least warm and fuzzy, and I’m glad they tempered it a bit for the visual versions.

The overall story is the same for all three. In terms of plot, from donghua to drama there are some small changes, which I mostly didn’t like but they were fairly inconsequential. I just don’t think the drama adds substantially to what I got out of the donghua. Even the music- I like the drama’s, but I still like the donghua’s better.

As a note, the donghua S2 is still airing and I do think the story naturally gets darker and less fun in this second half. But from what I’ve seen so far (~9 eps), they’re still doing a good job maintaining the cute, lighthearted tone.

Finally, an explanation of the two layers of transmigration- I didn’t pick this up for half of the donghua S1 and I don’t think the drama did much better, so this might help somebody. Xie Yong’er is a transmigrator with knowledge of one trashy novel, but herself is a character in the trashy novel that our real heroine (Yu Wanyin) has entered. Therefore. Xie Yong’er is trying to change the events that occur in the novel she read, while Yu Wanyin knows what she does and tries to change on top of that.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





The ending within the transmigration world is fine, I'd consider it a happy ending with sacrifices. There are several unfortunate deaths of people you probably like, but at least there is over half an episode of wrap up and people being happy together. It is choppy with no sense of time, and wastes screentime on some drawn out scene with a flamboyant costume, but still ok.

The annoying part is that they completely chop off the reunion in the modern world to a 1-minute sequence on the subway. It has no context and makes no sense. I heard they filmed something else and somehow it got edited to this.

The book version is way better, in which: they get another 10ish years happily together in the transmigration world before he dies; she lives out the rest of her life in that world (decades) and leaves the empire to her child; after dying, she comes back to the modern world, and immediately goes to look for him; in the past 10 years (he transmigrated 10 years before she did), he’s used the knowledge she gave him to build a company and bring the trashy novel back to its popularity, thus allowing her pre-migration self to see it and get the chance to transmigrate. Then they get together and have sexy time.

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PEAK!

*Genre** : Transmigration, Romance, Fantasy, Comedy
**Enjoyment** : 9/10
**Cinematography** : 10/10
**Visuals** : 9/10
ok so this might be my first cdrama EVER and oh my gof I WAS HOOOKEEED!! It’s such a good and interesting drama i feel like it wasn’t dragged at all!! It’s about a woman working in a webtoon station. Her boss tells her that she has to adopt **this novel** till tomorrow. She wishes that she could be inside the novel so she could understand better of what the main lead would do. Later that night she transmigrates into this amazing fantasy historical world meeting with another transmigrator.. And from then on the plot goes crazy 🔥 It’s seriously such a must watch !! It’s soo good watch it! Also it keeps u on ur toes it’s also exciting and lowkey suspenseful!

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Romance done right!

With a lot of heart and humour and without the usual drawn out misunderstandings.

The ML steals the show for me as he shows much more range in this role and pulled it off all beautifully! FL was good but her long fingernails were a bit of a distraction for me.

Instead of the common 1 person transmigrating into a book, we have a few this time and it creates for some unique touches to the storyline.*

I love it when a story can give me few little extras that I haven’t seen before, like the second FL, doctor and little mute girl.

So glad to have a nice happy ending that did not seem too abrupt.

Note: The OST reminds me of Love Between Fairy & Devil - both the singer and the way the music crescendoes dramatically in a nice way.

* spoiler: can you imagine growing into an adult trapped in a different world? So so sad when this was revealed.

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Chaotic fun with intensely beautiful visuals

One of the most unique and fun dramas I've ever watched! Intense visuals, chaotic plot lines, and absurd humor.

The leads' partnership is such a beautiful thing to witness. They truly treat each other as equals and in a entirely strange new world, they only have each other. It's easy to see how their relationship developed into love especially with the ML's tender eyes. Zhang San truly carried the drama with his duality as the mad tyrant and silly jokester.

Honestly, I felt no butterflies with their romance which was weird because I love the he fell first AND harder trope. The chemistry was there but it felt underdeveloped. I didn't swoon or cry. Their love just wasn't the focal point of the story. It was a fight for survival and going against the script, not romance.

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How Dare You be funny and emotional and heartbreaking and hilarious all at once?!?!

As the headline suggests, this drama has it all.

We have the almost Mary Sue-esque heroine who is smart, kind, beautiful, cunning, strategic, funny, brave and reckless.
We have the hero who seems a fool in the beginning but turns out to be a lot of different things, as well as a fool soemtimes.
We have the main couple chemistry, which is so good, they play off each other so well, they are very compatible and it can be seen and heard and felt.
We have the merry band of characters, found family trope done beautifully (though not without pain or heartbreak).
We have villains who have their own reasons and motives and are often smart and powerful and obviously evil.
We have sacrifices for the plot, the cause, the story. We have badass moments by both hero and heroine. We have several comedic scenes, tragic scenes, melodramatic scenes, annoying scenes.

All in all, we have a lot of the best things one looks for in a drama. Then what went wrong, why not a full 10?
The can-do-no-wrong heroine, the confusing way plot setting was shown/discussed which made me seek out explanations on various sites, the insufficient amount of Cheng Lei gone crazy scenes, all contribute to it.

The worst however is the ending.

A show like this needed more than just a 3 second meetup in the public transportation system. It required seeing Zhang San come back to a 15year old's body having lived a lifetime as the abused child/mad tyrant/ benevolent king, having to reconcile with it all while no one understood him and what he went through, having to wait a decade until he could meet her again!!!! I'm not even going in details of all that I wanted to see here (might do it on a tumblr rant), but tl;dr the writers dropped the ball

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absolutely worth it.

watching this drama made me Patient. I usually watch already aired dramas but this time I had to endure the suffering... it was worth it.

plot: nothing groundbreaking. we saw this plot a million time. modern girl ends up as the character of a novel... and here comes the plot twist.. she in not the only one!

right here we have evidence that you can play with the same old trope but enrich it with some spice.

what should I say?

characters: absolutely adorable.
the main couple has a strong chemistry and their characters make sense. they are also funny and played by exceptional actors.

some honoble mentions: secondary characters were fantastic. I absolutely adored Mr bei the martial art master.

yong'er: girl I despised you as much as I liked you.

the mean prince: the actor did such an amazing job. you really end up hating him.

the cast was stellar overall.

soundtrack: loved it. already added some songs into my playlist.

complaints: I don't have strong ones but I feel something was missing plot wise.
I didn't read the novel so I am basing this analysis entirely on the drama.
some parts where not clear to me.

Yong'er: I don't know where she is from. when talking about their normal life the FL mentions Beijing and yong'er is clearly confused. I deduce she is not from "our world".
I saw some comments mention that she is actually from another book.. I don't know.

the crown prince: he should be the emperor son.. but the timelines don't ally. the drama used the same actor to indicate that the crown prince and the emperor look alike at the same age, but if the crown prince is also fifteen like Zhang San was, he cannot be his son.

Qiang state: we never see this rival state mentioned until the empress dowager dies. weird. tu' Er is the prince of another nation, why not bring the Qiang state into the picture. I don't know.

the final scene: I don't quite get if that was a "what if" scenario or if they really came back.

Zhang er: in the early episodes he mentioned that he was waiting for someone but that someone wasn't our FL. who was it then?

maybe I was too distracted.

overall this "plot holes" are not that important in order to enjoy the story.

the drama is a good mix of romance, comedy and political intrigue.

no filler episodes.

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Jumanji Cdrama Style

Wang Cui Ha is an average editor working for a company that produces drama. She is tasked to edit a novel for an adaptation, and while reading through the novel, she somehow woke up as Yu Wanyin, a supporting character who is the emperor’s consort, that met her demise quite early in the story. To her surprise, when the emperor summoned her to his chamber for the first time, she found out that he too was a transmigrator when he managed to communicate with her in english. As both characters, The emperor and concubine Yu were secondary characters that would die very soon in the novel, Yu Wanyin decided to ally with the emperor to change the course of the story into their favour.

I started this series with a low bar for a romcom. Actually i did not look at the tagged genre, i just assumed it was romcom due to the opening theme and the early scenes of the series. And because most of novel transmigration series that ive seen rarely manage to hold my attention span (other than A Dream Within a Dream, that one was good!), i did not have much expectation on this, despite it having one of notable actor Ryan Cheng. Boy was I wrong. Other than the FL who was written so perfectly well, i really love the twisty unexpected plots too. And i was so not ready for the emotional turmoil they had in store in the last 10 episodes. The cast managed to induce enough emotion that i could really feel through the screen. Why did i mention Jumanji although there was no wildlife coming to life from the book into the real world? It was the Emperor, Xiahou Dan. He was trapped inside the novel for more than 10 years, basically growing up inside the book, which reminds me of the character in Jumanji who was trapped for almost 20 years inside a game. Such a sad life. So sad that he had to guard against others while growing up, getting poisoned by the Empress Dowager in order to drive him into madness.

Although both ML and FL were transmigrators, i could really feel the bonds they developed for the 2D characters they met in the novel. They did not look or feel fake like how i felt with other novel transmigration series that I’ve seen. I noticed that the main reason I don’t quite like novel transmigration stories is because the transmigrator’s relationship with other novel characters look fake (as they are a real person from a real world while the others are just creation of the author). Amazingly it was not the case in How Dare You! For this one, I’ll have to commend the screenwriter and the cast for making it look and feel real.

And although both main characters do not know any martial art, viewers can still feast on good action choreograph executed by those around the mainleads, their shadow guards, and Mr Bei.

I am actually impressed with Ryan Cheng. I’ve seen quite a lot of his works starting from My Journey To You, and I must say he managed to develop chemistry with all his co-stars that I’ve seen so far. That is talent, on his part and his co-lead of course, but I can only comment on his performance since I’ve seen many of his works and not quite as many of his co-stars. It also worths to note that this is also the first of Ryan’s work that I saw he not donning the general’s mantel or wielding any weapon with exceptional martial skill. Oh he didnt go bare-chested too 😂😆 it’s a fresh take to see him in a different type of character with a whole different emotional range and skillset.

I am especially smitten by the wonderful themesongs, notably Blazing Light by Curley Gao. The first time i heard it, i quickly told myself this must be curley gao and when i searched for the song on youtube, yup it was her indeed.

All in all, this series went waaaaay beyond my expectation that i feel it deserves a high rating. Kudos to the cast and production team!

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Just another in-book universe

I must be honest, Cheng Lei is what pulled me to this drama. I usually don't end up liking the "travel inside a book universe". Why don't I stop watching them? Because they almost always include my favorite actors in their cast.
Which was the case for this drama too.

I must also admit that I liked this drama, very much (YAY) but I do have some issues with it.

We follow Cui Ha as she has to complete a novel for work but while reading it she finds herself transmigrated into the story itself as Yu Wanyin, the demonic consort. With vague memories of a story she skimmed through, she plots to better her character's storyline but in order to do this she must change her entire character. Thankfully, she discovers she's not the only outworlder in this book. The emperor (Xiahou Dan), whom her character is destined to assassinate, appears to be a transmigrater too and together they set out to change their narritives and hope for a better outcome.

The show is funny, quirky and uses an otherwise dark script to make viewers feel everything. I didn't expect to be so immersed but I found myself ugly sobbing when one of the major characters died but found myself laughing at something the characters did only moments after. It's a perfect emotional rollercoaster like that. I ended up feeling for characters I initially didn't like, hated characters I initially liked and was really into the series. The characters are fun, well-written and layered.

What I truly liked about this drama is:
- I loved the friendship between Wanyin and Xie Yong. I was relieved to see Xie Yong wasn't used as a comic relief character after the girls became friends.
- The difference in character of Xiahou Dan. He's so goofy and kind when he's with Wanyin but he's this all powerful tyrant whenever he has to play the emperor. The amount of aura Cheng Lei can build in characters like these is beyond words.
- I loved how strong Wanyin was throughout the story. She doesn't take bullshit for an answer and, even without any real power, she makes sure she reaches her goals.
- Characters I thought would be boring additions to the inner circle became very interesting.
- I knew Tang Xiao Tian from "Story of Pearl Girl" and didn't believe that the cutie from that drama could produce a convincing villain but DAYUM did he prove me wrong.

The issues I have with this drama are (mostly due to lost subtext/context during chinese to english translations, I think) that some of it really didn't make any sense.
The inclusion of the "Zhang San Diaries" as an extra story didn't make any sense because (I believe) we didn't know that was Xiahuo Dan's real world name and the actor playing him as a child is the same actor who plays his son in the main timeline. I thought it was about the crown prince and the first two episode only confused me more. I skipped the third only to find out in the fourth that it was about young Xiahou Dan.
The ending didn't make sense because how can someone, who's been inside a book universe for over a decade, funtion normally within the real world? Or is it like a subconciousness thing? That a part of him in inside the book? It just leaves me with a lot of questions.
A lot of stuff in the last couple of episodes happened off screen which turned some situations random. They were explained later on but it made it seem rushed and haphazardly put together.

Another major issue I had was the end credits. Without warning they plopped up and spoilerd in a big way. It literally shows one of the last scenes of the last episode and tells you how the series will end. Scenes that should have put me on the edge of my seat didn't anymore because I knew it would turn out some type of way.

I kind of wished they would've made it into a story without using the pretense of a book universe. Wanyin hardly knew anything about the major plotlines because she skimmed through the book and Xiahou Dan was already integrated into the story so much he had forgotten most of his previous life. I know it was a bigger theme within the story, that both of them came from the real world but I believe the story could have stood on its own.

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