Night of the Brocade Moon (2025)

Could've been better had the focus been elsewhere

TL;DR: Expectations not even closely met. Bad writing and quality, even for mini vertical drama standards.

The Good:
► ML in makeup
► Early on role reversal themes
► Homme fatale/coquettish ML
► Lovers to enemies to lovers

The Bad:
► The bait and switch from a unique RR story to the same old thing we keep seeing
► The plot, predictable, cliché, and messy
► The 'villains'
► The FL and her inconsistent character
► The quality
► The absence of any attention to detail

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I was initially intrigued by this drama because of the title on YouTube and the first couple of scenes. I was expecting a role reversal story with maybe a sprinkle of femdom, but that's not what I got. Instead, this drama does the usual bait and switch that's seen in a lot of other similar dramas that start off RR but turn traditional after the initial 15-20 minutes. It does remain a bit on the line, crossing over from RR to traditional and back here and there, but for the most part, it remains on the traditional side.

Everything about this drama is messy. The story is all over the place, shallow and nonsensical. I usually can keep up with bad subtitles and the fast pacing of these verticals, but this one, I was thoroughly lost. Even after I finished, I'm still not sure what I watched. The acting is not great; the only one who was better was ML. Though FL did have to play two different roles, I don't think she handled either well.

Characters are shallow even for microdramas. The villains have little to no depth, becoming nothing more than the same overused stereotype we keep seeing. The FL was, in my opinion, the worst, unable to decide if she's a strong military commander or a helpless damsel in distress, not sure why they even bothered making her a military woman. The ML had the slightest bit more depth, but I also think the actor contributed a lot to it. He has more internal dilemmas, and his actions make more sense. Also, a big fan of any ML that isn't a caricature cold CEO/General type, so there's definitely that.

As for the romance, it was lacking. Their scenes felt more awkward than steamy, and there were precious few of them despite their relationship being a pretty big part of the plot. Ultimately, the non-romance plot was the most important aspect, and the rest took a backseat to it. Needless to say, the romance was the only interesting part.

As for quality... This was on the lower tier of the micro verticals. Based on the poster and the name, you'd think this would be better, but you'd be sorely mistaken. The outfits didn't fit most characters (as in, it literally was either too big or too small on them), the sets were awful, and even the props were so bad that it was impossible to suspend disbelief. None of it was good.

Lastly, get used to FL asking, "Who are you?" To ML *at least* once per episode. It's exhausting.

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