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This review may contain spoilers
Interesting detective drama with heavy dark themes
This is a well written historical detective drama set in the Tang dynasty period, that tells the story of the Palace Investigation Bureau investigator FL, who seeks to find the truth behind her family's massacre that was pinned on her father, the prince of Duan.
This main plot is intertwined with mysterious cases that she investigates with the astronomer ML and her Bureau colleagues at the palace grounds and beyond. These cases expose some very heavy and dark themes relevant even to this day and are quite thought provoking - lack of rights and laws protecting women, bullying, abuse, forced labor at illegal brothels, misogyny at work, crazy cults exploiting people for money, etc.
And the main theme is clearly shown throughout the whole drama - there is no justice to be found at the palace. "The fish rots from the head" - the emperor himself cannot uphold the law by showing favoritism and so it trickles down through the ranks, with powerful covering for each other, while powerless having nowhere to turn to for justice. So victims often take matters into their own hands and enact their lawless revenge, consequences be damned. So cases often start by investigating an already happened crime of revenge, instead of an initial crime.
These cases also gradually lead to a thought that ruthless path of revenge always ends up in tragedy, and it comes into play when FL finally gets a chance at her own revenge on the main villain.
Being the sole survivor of a branch of the royal family and a close relative, FL is favored by the emperor and has many privileges as a county princess. But she doesn't care about status, power or court schemes - her life's single goal is revenge. She's very jaded, sharp witted, even more sharp tongued, reckless and excellent at reading people. She's also an expert martial artist who was trained by the Bureau's boss since childhood. Her charisma and drive to seek justice command respect and loyalty from her colleagues. FL is not without flaws though: she suffers from survivor's guilt with self-destructive tendencies, which makes her push people away and not value her life. But overall, this character's concept is so cool and FL plays it so well it heavy lifts the whole drama.
After the murdered princess case reveals that a celestial prophecy was involved, the emperor orders ML, who is the deputy director of the Astronomical Bureau, to help FL. He's FL's antipode - a level-headed, gentle, book smart scholar with very good memory and some unconventional knowledge, but no fighting skills (though he ends up saving FL way more often that her). ML starts rather stiff here, probably due to sheltered upbringing and secluded scholar's job. His family also holds a secret to FL's tragic past, so on his father's orders ML begrudgingly tries to avoid FL in the beginning, acting distant, so that she won't recognize him. But they very quickly get on the right foot while solving cases, and his desire to help FL find the truth, as well as their growing relationship eventually bring heavy emotions out of him down the line. His patient and understanding character complements FL's difficult character greatly here. And though this drama is female centric, with role reversal going on here, it never degrades male characters by making them look inferior to female ones, so it's another plus.
Together the leads complement each other's strengths and weaknesses nicely to successfully solve these mysterious and often elaborately staged cases. And as they get to spend time together and know each other better, they develop romantic feelings towards each other. This drama has a very sweet and realistic romantic sub-plot, even though it's not the main focus of the drama. Romance here is a slow burn based on gradually gained mutual trust, respect and understanding, rather than simple physical attraction. The leads are like those mandarin ducks, often cited in Chinese poetry, that just clicked together.
The support cast here is also quite strong, from FL's awesome grandpa mentor and her good friends at the Bureau, to a colorful host of concubines and staff living in the palace, to the very divisive character of the emperor himself. He may not be the villain here, but his flaws and weaknesses drive ripples through all the stories of this drama.
There are many nasty, sometimes truly monstrous villains that get exposed in the cases, but the main villain behind FL's family massacre is not active until later episodes, when FL starts circling closer to the truth. And even then the drama manages to keep you guessing whether he's working alone, or there are some other powerful people in cohoots with him. I'd say he's the main letdown of this whole drama, because while being known to be very smart and calculating, in the end he turns into a dumbass with a penchant for cliche villain expositions, whom FL eventually cleverly outsmarts to deal beautiful poetic justice. Yea, he's a classic villain of that era, with too many irl examples to count, but they could have made him smarter.
Another questionable thing here is that the drama presents another villain in the last two episodes, who was working behind the scenes to eliminate the main villain and his whole clan. And even though FL uses his schemes against him to deal with the main villain herself, that new powerful villain's shadow looms over the whole happy ending as there's a season 2 teaser (which is already announced) with him after the credits of the last episode.
Overall, this drama is well paced, even though it's clear that some episodes were cut due to total episode count being shortened. Some scenes are abruptly cut, especially in the beginning of the drama and perhaps the last two episodes. But nothing important was lost, the drama is easy to follow if you pay attention and everybody got closure at the end with as happy ending as one can get considering the tone of this drama. I've read that cut content mostly involved some side characters' backstories and wasn't important to the main plot.
I also liked that the drama doesn't waste your time with empty talk or useless side characters taking up screen time.
And it rewards those who paid attention with meaningful dialogues coming into play in later episodes.
It also benefits from a second watch - you may notice how some plot points were set up from the very beginning. Made me appreciate the well thought out plot even more.
The drama also has high production value with expensive sets, superb costumes, well choreographed fights and very beautiful music. OST here really stands out. And some of FL's embroidered costumes likely cost as much as a whole episode of some cheaper dramas.
All in all, I give it an 8.5. Even with its flaws concerning the main villain and unfortunate episode cuts, its story, characters and music are memorable and quite charming, despite the dark, mature themes being exposed here.
This main plot is intertwined with mysterious cases that she investigates with the astronomer ML and her Bureau colleagues at the palace grounds and beyond. These cases expose some very heavy and dark themes relevant even to this day and are quite thought provoking - lack of rights and laws protecting women, bullying, abuse, forced labor at illegal brothels, misogyny at work, crazy cults exploiting people for money, etc.
And the main theme is clearly shown throughout the whole drama - there is no justice to be found at the palace. "The fish rots from the head" - the emperor himself cannot uphold the law by showing favoritism and so it trickles down through the ranks, with powerful covering for each other, while powerless having nowhere to turn to for justice. So victims often take matters into their own hands and enact their lawless revenge, consequences be damned. So cases often start by investigating an already happened crime of revenge, instead of an initial crime.
These cases also gradually lead to a thought that ruthless path of revenge always ends up in tragedy, and it comes into play when FL finally gets a chance at her own revenge on the main villain.
Being the sole survivor of a branch of the royal family and a close relative, FL is favored by the emperor and has many privileges as a county princess. But she doesn't care about status, power or court schemes - her life's single goal is revenge. She's very jaded, sharp witted, even more sharp tongued, reckless and excellent at reading people. She's also an expert martial artist who was trained by the Bureau's boss since childhood. Her charisma and drive to seek justice command respect and loyalty from her colleagues. FL is not without flaws though: she suffers from survivor's guilt with self-destructive tendencies, which makes her push people away and not value her life. But overall, this character's concept is so cool and FL plays it so well it heavy lifts the whole drama.
After the murdered princess case reveals that a celestial prophecy was involved, the emperor orders ML, who is the deputy director of the Astronomical Bureau, to help FL. He's FL's antipode - a level-headed, gentle, book smart scholar with very good memory and some unconventional knowledge, but no fighting skills (though he ends up saving FL way more often that her). ML starts rather stiff here, probably due to sheltered upbringing and secluded scholar's job. His family also holds a secret to FL's tragic past, so on his father's orders ML begrudgingly tries to avoid FL in the beginning, acting distant, so that she won't recognize him. But they very quickly get on the right foot while solving cases, and his desire to help FL find the truth, as well as their growing relationship eventually bring heavy emotions out of him down the line. His patient and understanding character complements FL's difficult character greatly here. And though this drama is female centric, with role reversal going on here, it never degrades male characters by making them look inferior to female ones, so it's another plus.
Together the leads complement each other's strengths and weaknesses nicely to successfully solve these mysterious and often elaborately staged cases. And as they get to spend time together and know each other better, they develop romantic feelings towards each other. This drama has a very sweet and realistic romantic sub-plot, even though it's not the main focus of the drama. Romance here is a slow burn based on gradually gained mutual trust, respect and understanding, rather than simple physical attraction. The leads are like those mandarin ducks, often cited in Chinese poetry, that just clicked together.
The support cast here is also quite strong, from FL's awesome grandpa mentor and her good friends at the Bureau, to a colorful host of concubines and staff living in the palace, to the very divisive character of the emperor himself. He may not be the villain here, but his flaws and weaknesses drive ripples through all the stories of this drama.
There are many nasty, sometimes truly monstrous villains that get exposed in the cases, but the main villain behind FL's family massacre is not active until later episodes, when FL starts circling closer to the truth. And even then the drama manages to keep you guessing whether he's working alone, or there are some other powerful people in cohoots with him. I'd say he's the main letdown of this whole drama, because while being known to be very smart and calculating, in the end he turns into a dumbass with a penchant for cliche villain expositions, whom FL eventually cleverly outsmarts to deal beautiful poetic justice. Yea, he's a classic villain of that era, with too many irl examples to count, but they could have made him smarter.
Another questionable thing here is that the drama presents another villain in the last two episodes, who was working behind the scenes to eliminate the main villain and his whole clan. And even though FL uses his schemes against him to deal with the main villain herself, that new powerful villain's shadow looms over the whole happy ending as there's a season 2 teaser (which is already announced) with him after the credits of the last episode.
Overall, this drama is well paced, even though it's clear that some episodes were cut due to total episode count being shortened. Some scenes are abruptly cut, especially in the beginning of the drama and perhaps the last two episodes. But nothing important was lost, the drama is easy to follow if you pay attention and everybody got closure at the end with as happy ending as one can get considering the tone of this drama. I've read that cut content mostly involved some side characters' backstories and wasn't important to the main plot.
I also liked that the drama doesn't waste your time with empty talk or useless side characters taking up screen time.
And it rewards those who paid attention with meaningful dialogues coming into play in later episodes.
It also benefits from a second watch - you may notice how some plot points were set up from the very beginning. Made me appreciate the well thought out plot even more.
The drama also has high production value with expensive sets, superb costumes, well choreographed fights and very beautiful music. OST here really stands out. And some of FL's embroidered costumes likely cost as much as a whole episode of some cheaper dramas.
All in all, I give it an 8.5. Even with its flaws concerning the main villain and unfortunate episode cuts, its story, characters and music are memorable and quite charming, despite the dark, mature themes being exposed here.
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