AleksandraSucur

both of your reasoning are correct but maybe we all have incomplete info.
The emp. of Shusha mentioned in today's ep the relationship among JinXiu imperial relatives is not good, we've seen that the JinXiu emperial decree to Lord of Zhennan (ie. his brother, 2ML) to marry Shusha princess was imposed on him and unwelcomed, so it could actually be the emperor, except for one detail. The chief assassin after the FL and ML in the forest (while she was whipping him) mentioned the order of "His Lordship" (not of "His Majesty") that it would be the best if Feng Suige killed her and passed a written order to his collegue, that paper had no emperial insignia on it, that's why I think it isn't the JinXiu emperor. But the emperor may have had a reason to eliminate her, despite her political powerlessness: eg. Xia Jingshi's relationship with FL could represent an obstacle for the marriage with Shusha princess he planned before that battle took place. If she's dead, his brother (or the emperial in-laws of Shusha) has no reason to oppose the arrangement.
The MDL cast list also contains a name of another "Xia", maybe there's another brother with the title of "Lord" and that one may be involved in a conspiracy with Zhuang family. The Zhuangs initial deal with that Xia person could have been to destroy the entire Feng's battalion, and that operation failed because she shot the ML causing the withdrawal of Feng's army while the plan was to allure it and destroy it inside the city. She may have even shot him deliberately to prevent such a massacre and was hunted and killed because of that.
Ofc., it could still be Xia Jingshi or someone inside his closest Zhennan military circle who's secretly in service of one his brothers, because the person who shot her was known to her and she didn't expect a mortal threat when she was shot.

Once in a while, we've got an amnesia totally functional to the storyline.
Once in a while, we've got actors truly capable to perform temperamental characters. These 2 are total fire put together in the same frame.
Once in a while, the first kiss didn't happened because one of the leads had just drowned.
Ofc., these three things aren't sufficient to make me watch it eagerly, but I feel these premises are good enough to expect an awesome watch.

I also find her acting boring

generally speaking, this drama follows a weird logic we should take for granted. I was constantly at the age to drop it but at this point I'll endure last 4 eps...

If it were you to meet your 3-y older self, you would...

Don't know you, but I would immediately believe it. The revelation (from the older self to the younger) actually came lately in this drama, but from the moment I was aware as a young version of myself I'd believe it. Cause I know how I'd check it is me 3-y older: 3-y older myself would certainly remember the numbers of the latest national lottery and I (the younger)'ll be ok awaiting that day without complaints 😂No numbers, I'd never believe it 😂😂😂

Thank you, I've elaborated it furtherly for Ella :)))

I've watched this drama mainly because of food, I'm very passionate about cooking and know a lot about the food and ingredients for famous or typical dishes from all over the world. If you glance at my watching list, you'll notice I've hardly missed a drama on this topic. And that aspect precisely largely DISSAPOINTED any attentive viewer of a drama in which every episode was entitled to a dish. I wouldn't mind the lack of historical or food-culture accuracy (eg. there's no traditional pendant for butter in Korea/Joseon because there were no cattle breeding at all at the time, the use of diary in general is very recent on Korean peninsula, peppers were indeed introduced approximately during the reign of Yi Hon by Portuguese traders from Central America, but as an ornamental plant, later studied as medical and it took another century of climate adaptation to obtain Korean chili pepper for gochugaru, the air-pumping during the preparation of a Peking duck is not inside the bird but between its skin and meat, sesame oil is unfit for bourguignonne - for which you also need "boef", a beef, you have not in Joseon - not only because of the strong taste, but because of the much higher smoke point of this oil compared with the peanuts /of South American origin!/ oil with neutral taste a modern cook would use for this dish, passing to the main ingredient of chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa butter unknown till early 19th century and so on...), if the lack in these details was compensated with smth. good, believable or entertaining, as it happened with Mr. Queen for example.
The comedy was so good in Mr. Queen that it overshadowed anything else: I've never laughed so much in my life watching a drama, I've even laughed on mispronounciations (I remember Mc Donalds) although I don't know Korean...
In this drama, you have nothing to compensate the lack of accuracy regarding the food. The romance, is it convincing? The political intrigue? FL's transportation back in time we've seen so many times, but with far more engaging purposes?
Maybe, if you think better, you'll also notice that only the ML's character carried a bit of necessary comedy to keep us intrigued and the actor performed well with his perforating glances and body speech, while FL remained flat before the camera. Ofc, it wasn't all the fault of the actress, but also of the dull script...

The leading actor carried on this entire drama, maybe just with a little help of a few seasoned actors performing side characters (secretary, dowager, jester, maid...). These few actors/characters made us watch the entire drama based on such a dull script and superficial characters.
For the FL.. the actress's performance was just boring, predictable, some times even annoying due to the script overloaded with clichés and essentially uninteresting & predictable character she ought to impersonate. The overacting of the actress impersonating her court rival, wicked Lady Kang was even harder to watch.
The cooking and the dishes scenes, although well shot, were also boring and predictable, especially when treated in competition settings

The leading actor carried on this entire drama, maybe just with a little help of some seasoned actors performing side characters (secretary, dowager, jester, maid...). These few actors/characters made us watch the entire drama based on such a dull script.
For the FL.. the actress's performance was just boring, predictable, some times even annoying due to the script overloaded with clichés and essentially uninteresting & predictable character she ought to impersonate. The overacting of the actress impersonating her court rival, wicked Lady Kang was even harder to watch.
The cooking and the dishes scenes, although well shot, were also boring and predictable, especially when treated in competition settings

Lets hope it will continue to be watchable
Tnx

And what have I written? I've said this drama is BETTER than others I've seen of this Grave Robbers' series in terms of production quality, script/dialogues, acting and directing. Ofc., it's my personal view but it is objectified - if not for other things I can argue if you wish - with your own view which seems to be similar if not identical to mine.

I don't know how much it follows the books (a friend of mine commented it's pretty accurate and I believe her) but how much it sticks to the original story is irrelevant to what I've wanted to point out: it must be a good story to be watchable (for me, ofc). Till now, it is, but I am curious whether it will still be watchable when A'Ning appears, bc. her character wasn't particularly convincing in other adaptations I've seen till now and judged as "ok for kids".

This one is more intelligible than The Lost Tomb for people (like me) who hasn't read the novel(s), though it's still a bit draggy with a plot and exaggerated with dark tones and actions in the grave, making it uneasy to watch.
I'll wait for Ning to appear in order to decide whether to watch or to drop it, a character which annoyed me the most both in The Lost Tomb (Tiffany Tang) and in Ultimate Note (Hankiz Omar), making me think of these Grave Robbers novels as stories exclusively for kids and dramatised only with a specific purpose of training and notoriety of young actors.
No matter how much the production quality, the script/dialogues, acting and directing improve (and objectively they've all improved compared to TLT and UN), with no convincing story to watch, there's nothing to watch, at least for me.

Lady Ok is truly "ok". 😁I've seen it when it aired but forgot to rate it, remembered when casually stumbled upon it. I think you'll enjoy it even more because it's better for a binge-watch.
I don't know what to watch in this moment and propose as "lets' watch and comment this together"... Now I'm after Voyage of Haihun 2", the first part wasn't that that great (wasn't bad either) and ended with a cliffhanger, but the 2nd part is still not listed on MD and we have no room to talk about it. I see we are only watching Bon appetite during we now. Let me know inbox if you find out smth better, pls.

Thank you, it's a mutual joy, I love our "watching a drama together" and then reading your thoughts as the story progresses! I've liked your review as well and I'm glad our "final thoughts" on FoC are so similar! 🤓❤️

My review (no spoilers) https://kisskh.at/profile/11598319/review/493750

https://kisskh.at/profile/11598319/review/493750

many thanks for your appreciation, in that case, I'll give my best to write it tomorrow 🤓

Well, several people here couldn't continue because of the time switch and I think it's normal: there's a huge societal, cultural and environmental gap between late Republican and early Communist era even in real history, just 20 years feel like 200. Previous attempts to bridge this period of time in a drama regularly failed. Even the HQ production such as The War of Faith failed in the second arc because it glorified CCP ideals, actions etc., it felt like propaganda with nothing wrong about their bad actions (the fault was always with the "reactionary forces") and the narrative logically suffered because individual struggles and pains come after the "greater good", sacrifices are almost taken for granted.

Probably for the first time (as far as I know), we have a (female) INDIVIDUAL struggling because of the new society, which is objectified, with its positive and negative aspects and which is neither good nor bad and is both good and bad at the same time, but the perspective is focused on the FL and on other characters as PERSONS with their problems, pains, inner worlds... juxtaposed to an intrusion, an all-pervasiveness of the "organisation" (CCP) in their lives, frequently adding troubles to their toils. That's why it feels so realistic. The cinematography remained great in the second arc and the narrative made sense all the time. I liked the romance in it, as well, its poiesis and subtleness. Hope you'll like it, too

Tnx for sharing your profi opinion on the industry in Shanghai. I've noticed smth similar: objects, decorations and props in the house testifying the change of times like... footprints in the title.
I think this drama will remain very decent and well-thought till the very end.

we already know what happened to them: they've emigrated before the Liberation (probably after the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1937), presumably living happily ever after in another country. He had money and connections, she had a medical profession, experienced even in managing a hospital, she had lived abroad before etc.
What wasn't explained in the drama is how the've get to such a choice... so, I think we should just take it generically as a life choice. We know about them through Yi Yi's story on them, it makes sense she didn't know the reason for this decision also because she lived in Chongqing at the time.
Life stories of this trilogy are mainly anchored to a place, to this house which was a wealthy family residence first, then a hospital, a factory (with small residential area) turned into shabby premises for small businesses (with small residential area as well). Ofc., the stories are also connected through the female family connection of different generation, time and challenges.