Slow start, fast pick up
The feel of the drama was initially like a so-so middle of the road, safe kind of thing.Even the lead roles were carried by not so stunning looking actors.
But boy, did it pick up quickly, delivering twists and turns, and story and character development that made watching each episode a thrill...
In the end, even the looks of the lead actors grow on you, for the quality of their performance.
As always, an ode here, to the Chinese actor in general, who proves time and again that a part, however small, may never stay so if the actor is great.
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Lovely performance of Feng Shao Feng (who played the epic male role in “The Story of Minglan”, as well as the dramtic role in “Life is a long quiet river”). This actor is unafraid to show his skinny naked self if it is to go for comedic effect.
A joy to watch indeed.
Still, while laughing my head off I kept feeling a bit uneasy about the switcheroo of the sex of the main characters. I mean, really? A female who is a vixen, a fox? How lame is that? To fall on an ages old preconception, across all cultures, that is. However, I could not stay long concerning myself with women portraied in a stereotype manner. I was too busy laughing.
Cudos!
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A true bore
At the expense of turning myself into a bore too, I repeat: it was very, very boring. I have no idea what took me up to the 22nd episode. I guess, hope. Hope that somehow things will come around. They did not. And the review must be 300 words to get through. So, what am I to do if nothing of substance can be said of nothing of substance? I am amazed at the current score on MDL: 8,9?! Why, oh, why? Are there 300 words now?Was this review helpful to you?
And with such wit, and careful balance between humour and outright sarcasm displayed against the production teams, marketing gurus, writers, directors and diva-status actors making up the drama movies industry.
It's a gem.
May it rise to 10 out of 10 approval rating points, for it stands easily at 20.
How about the music?
Another gem. So often in Chinese dramas the music trashes over dialogue at impossible high volumes, making impossible to follow or even hear what the actors are saying.
Here, the music is a character in itself. It comments, it pokes fun at the situation, script or characters. It reinterprets classical scores, it goes down on you with heavy metal rings. It has it all, but mostly, I think it has brains.
It is a feast for the ears, soul and mind.
And please, where have you ever seen top actors deriding their own status on camera, while winking at the audience?!
Acting skills are never a problem in the dramas I have seen. So many a boring script and forgetful directing I endured for the sake of the brilliant actors picking up the production from the trash bin.
Here I hope that the beautiful cast had as much fun poking fun at their real life status as I had watching them acting.
Oh, and I forgot: yes, it is about an actress "falling" into a different dimension, and into the script of the period drama she is cast to play in.
But, boy, after this overly done premise, everything else was turned on its head with sheer wit of scenario, of directing, of acting.
Have I said it already?
It's an absolute best!
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Heartwarming!
Young woman enters the palace. How many Chinese dramas have started with such a premise. And yet, what a joy and what a startle to see this series' fresh take on a subject matter overly done in Chinese period dramas ...I loved every minute of it, every bit of acting and story line.
It really gave me the fuzzy heartwarming feeling as when I am enjoying comfort food. Do give it a try. I am sure you will experience the same.
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Masterpiece
Superb everything: story, pace, character development, acting, music, cinematography, directing.It is an absolute best at delivering cliffhanger moments, episode by episode, on what otherwise are long musings on power struggle.
It is a treat for the mind and soul, utterly educational while keeping one fully engaged in the story.
If I have to think of only one word, that would be "substance".
It has it all, in spades, at all levels.
The only startling thing is the title. It sounds like a WiFi password.
But boy, what a treat once you get past it.
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Script that defies logic
I am almost ashamed to have reached and also wonder what took me to episode 25.I guess masochism, for early on it was clear the script lacked internal coherence. It also lacked providing growth and depth to characters, who were pushed into new roles that had nothing to do with logic.
Events and new roles for the same characters kept popping out like rabbits from hat at a magic show.
But not in a good way.
Anyway, now, when I come to think of it, I must have lingered on because of the actors. They did a great job, huge job, I would say, giving the crappie script they had to act on.
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This review may contain spoilers
An absolute gem
I arrived at this title following the director's name, the same one directing the gorgeous epic "Three Kingdoms", of 2010.That was a monumental film, both literally and figuratively.
This one is a 24 episode long little gem which is a thrill to watch, and bordering on thriller, at some point.
The chilling story of an abusive husband, which deployes the whole arsenal of isolating the victim, unfolds before our eyes.
No verbal abuse and little physical abuse, towards the end, and yet one watches gasping for air how the spider web entangles the victim to the point of anihalation.
Superb acting, chilling few notes as musical background, and lines spoken in low, husky voices makes this another kind of gem delivered by this director.
Of course, there is the mandatory redeeming ending, which is rushed in the final three episodes.
But that is a small price to pay, given the previous 21 episodes of sheer evil unfolding.
Masterpiece !
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Brilliant acting, insulting storyline
This sequel to Royal Nirvana has one merrit only: it brings to its obvious end the strained relationship between father and son, Emperor and Crown Prince. The weaker link breaks and the Crown Prince commits suicide in one of the most beautiful scenes I saw depicting such ending.But the rest was a complete and utter mess and nonsense.
Case in point: the whole of Royal Nirvana was about a man not recognizing the woman in front of him was the one he was smitten about.
And it ends with him realizing who she really was.
To then get in this Royal Nirvana Special that he takes her as one of his many concubines, while also neglecting her for three solid years, and keeping her into a virtual house arrest.
WTF???
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When characters keep telling "by the way" ...
Well, given that it is a film inspired by a book which I did not read, I cannot tell if it is the book author or the script writers who lack the imagination.What I mean is that one knows, when characters use an abundance of "by the way" to introduce their lines, that the writer's imagination died a long ago, and the script drags along like a zombi.
As always, my heart goes out to the Chinese actors, who manage to perform beautifully, even in such dire conditions ...
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Lazy, lazy, lazy director
It would have been sheer perfection if it lasted 30 instead of 40 episodes.The real bummer is that around episode 25 or so the director got really, really lazy and provided each and every episode with some 15 minutes break from action, in the total 45 minutes duration of an episode.
It did so with editing in long, repetitive shots accompanied by the very same two or three tunes, during which the story did not advance but was more like "displayed".
Also, imagine hearing over and over again (some 20 times over) the same two or three songs ...
No matter how touching on one's feelings the first time, they end up touching on one's nerves by the 20th iteration ...
Silly and artistically counterproductive way to stretch the material in order to reach the 40 episodes mark.
I understand: they may be paid by the number of episodes.
But that is not the way to go, but the way to mock at the otherwise onest work of the acting cast.
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An absolute masterpiece, here to last
I watched this series for the first time in 2024. As I am hooked for the past two years or so to binge watching Chinese dramas, I have to say that this 14 year old series is the absolute best. It lands on you like a ton of bricks. Perfection, perfection, perfection! Naming a few would not do justice to the rest, who moved as one to deliver this story. Superb work went into the translation too. That did justice to the scriptwriter and to the actors delivering the lines, because it let us, the non Chinese, fully enjoy this masterpiece too. I saw comments from people yearning for more, and hoping for remakes. That would not do. A masterpiece is a masterpiece. One cannot conceive of a second "Casablanca", or a second "Rashomon". One can only watch the original, again and again and again.Was this review helpful to you?
Outstanding on all levels
Outstanding acting, and story and character development. There are no small roles in this series. The actors make them big. Really! Shocked to see that communist China is a place of cut throat competitiveness and survival of the fittest game. How did it get past censorship? The sweet tones, the humorous lines or characters cannot erase the brutal reality exposed: having a home in Shanghai is a big deal, sometimes unattainable, or attainable at the cost of trampling over other people's lives. Also intertwined with the personal history of the two protagonists is the question of being filial to the point of being bullied by one's own family. Again: outstanding work and an eye opener for someone like me, living outside of the Chinese culture.Was this review helpful to you?
Liu Wei is an actor out of this world
I am writing from Bucharest, Romania, a country which was communist until 1989. To my thus trained eyes, this movie is obviously answering to a PCC request to portray the policies aiming at the transformation of the countryside to the point of "errasing the differences from citylife".However, in spite of that, the Chinese director and scriptwriter really knew how to deliver ...
It was sheer joy to watch such an intellectually rewarding script, with ample character development and plot turns, which provides a stark view into a vry brutal Chinese contemporary society.
The title role is played by Zhao Li Ying, who also had the female lead in “The Story of Minglan”.
She is good, outstanding are the supporting cast, but out of this world is Liu Wei, the 65 year old actor playing the local PCC leader.
I put Liu Wei in a chategory of his own, as stays Anthony Quinn, for instance.
The series starts with a bang, when at a wedding party in a village, the bride saves her sister from being raped with bashing the asailants head. The would be rapist was the son of the local PCC leader.
From there on, to the very end, it unfolds the uphill battle of the female protagonist with the family she married into, with the villagers, with the PCC local leaders. For a long time she is the underdog, and stays the underdog.
The last 30 minutes in the last episode rushes in the positive and politically acceptable outcome, but this fact cannot erase the rest of the episodes of sheer brutal realism.
Cudos for getting past the censorship such a movie!
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An absolute masterpiece
Perfection is the word for all the actors envolved, but I need to name here Duan Yi Hong for his portrayal of chancellor Lu Buwei. He is so, so subtle in his rendition of the multifaceted personality that Lu Buwei was ... It was a joy to watch. I was annoyed by the choice the casting directors had for the character of the first emperor: while the scripted words and the historical records said he was a teenager, the actor's age was obviously 40. Good actor. However, it was easier on the viewer to let go of this blatant discrepancy, only when the script dropped the constant reference to the character's age. Other than that, of course, there is the issue of translation into English. While I commend anyone's effort for providing it, still, that should be handled with much more care. I read a lot of comments from bilingual people, those who understood both Chinese and English, who were unhappy with it. I for one, have no hint of what I really missed from Chinese, but I got an idea that something was amiss from the English lines. So, when translating for us, the international viewers, do not work harder, but better. Thank you.Was this review helpful to you?
