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This review may contain spoilers
Solid original story and characters, butchered by a terrible scriptwriting. Actors did well
If you decide to watch this drama, know it will hook you (as it hooked me) with a dark and serious note of political turmoil, introducing the reasons of a deep clash and hatred between two clans, once united in a common vision and a great project of canal constructions. Unfortunatelly, just after the initial interesting 5-6 eps, it will turn into a fluffy romance & beating around the bush.
C-drama scriptwriters regularly have the following problem: they can't decide a genre in which their story should be set, they can't accept a simple fact that if you open a serious plot, you must keep going with that premise, you can't suddenly turn it into an idol-drama. Personally, I don't disdain a fluffy romance either, if it is true to itself. If I am not in a mood to watch fluffy stuff, I'll pass, if I am, I'll watch it. But what I find unacceptable is the betrayal of the initial expectation the author(s) of the story created. Because it means the author(s) is manipulating me (=the audience) and challenges my intelligence.
Actually, this or these poor screen adaptor(s) challenged my intelligence even in those initial episodes, when the FL tried to impede the main male antagonist (Liu Yan) to flood the downstream of a canal by... burning the sulfur bags hidden in a granary (!) and destined to blow up a dam on the canal. In real life, by burning sulfur in that granary, a supposedly smart FL, would a) provoke explosive reaction and kill herself and b) intoxicate the whole city to the death with sulfur dioxide (SO2), probably causing a greater damage than the bad guy's flooding. I've thought, ok, it's a C-drama, no big deal...
But later another "granary plot" didn't make any sense and it regarded the main female antagonist, Su E Huang, who was able to take out of the Wei's granary a resistent wheat seed sent from the FL's clan, cook it and send it back, in order to force the ML to choose between his (Qiao) wife and his (Wei) cousin, who was supposed to preside over the granary. At this point, I've decided to check if these things happened in the original novel, just to know who to blame for the nonsense which started to accumulate, the author of the novel or the screenwriter, discovering nothing nonsensical or illogical happened in the novel.
The novel isn't great in its narrative but it is well structured in plots, actions and political intrigues. If the screenwriter sticked to it, she (they) would have done far better job. Instead, she (they) felt smarter, maybe even a better artist, able to re-write a perfectly logical and rational story and turn it into an idol-drama. Unfortunately, in this remake process, logic went to the drain. Differently from the drama, the novel MADE SENSE ALL THE TIME, its characters and their decisions, plots and motivations were realistic, both on the protagonists' and the antagonists' side. It makes sense and doesn't offend your basic knowledge and intelligence. I wonder if this dumb scriptwriter ever attended an elementary school? If she did, she would have heard of communicating vessels principle: you can't raise the level of the marsh by draining the connected river downstream...
Really, the amount of nonsense is not limited to the actions, the screen adaptation totally unnecessary exaggerated and/or twisted practically all original characters, making them nonsensical as well, Manman, the FL is this supersmart and superskilled woman (who would have blowned up herself in reality in the first eps, as I've explained above), Daqiao is a woman comitted just to one man to the point no other relation matters any more for her, and all the male characters are basically dumbed down.
Last but not least, the drama adaptation failed to maintain the atmosphere, the geist of its time, in many episodes. On the positive side, the chemistry between actors is ok, the artistic department also greatly did its job, horrible wigs aside. The direction was also fine until the last 5 eps, incredibly rushed, disorganised and incomplete.
So, unless you are able to completely switch off your brain, I wouldn't recommend you to watch this drama
C-drama scriptwriters regularly have the following problem: they can't decide a genre in which their story should be set, they can't accept a simple fact that if you open a serious plot, you must keep going with that premise, you can't suddenly turn it into an idol-drama. Personally, I don't disdain a fluffy romance either, if it is true to itself. If I am not in a mood to watch fluffy stuff, I'll pass, if I am, I'll watch it. But what I find unacceptable is the betrayal of the initial expectation the author(s) of the story created. Because it means the author(s) is manipulating me (=the audience) and challenges my intelligence.
Actually, this or these poor screen adaptor(s) challenged my intelligence even in those initial episodes, when the FL tried to impede the main male antagonist (Liu Yan) to flood the downstream of a canal by... burning the sulfur bags hidden in a granary (!) and destined to blow up a dam on the canal. In real life, by burning sulfur in that granary, a supposedly smart FL, would a) provoke explosive reaction and kill herself and b) intoxicate the whole city to the death with sulfur dioxide (SO2), probably causing a greater damage than the bad guy's flooding. I've thought, ok, it's a C-drama, no big deal...
But later another "granary plot" didn't make any sense and it regarded the main female antagonist, Su E Huang, who was able to take out of the Wei's granary a resistent wheat seed sent from the FL's clan, cook it and send it back, in order to force the ML to choose between his (Qiao) wife and his (Wei) cousin, who was supposed to preside over the granary. At this point, I've decided to check if these things happened in the original novel, just to know who to blame for the nonsense which started to accumulate, the author of the novel or the screenwriter, discovering nothing nonsensical or illogical happened in the novel.
The novel isn't great in its narrative but it is well structured in plots, actions and political intrigues. If the screenwriter sticked to it, she (they) would have done far better job. Instead, she (they) felt smarter, maybe even a better artist, able to re-write a perfectly logical and rational story and turn it into an idol-drama. Unfortunately, in this remake process, logic went to the drain. Differently from the drama, the novel MADE SENSE ALL THE TIME, its characters and their decisions, plots and motivations were realistic, both on the protagonists' and the antagonists' side. It makes sense and doesn't offend your basic knowledge and intelligence. I wonder if this dumb scriptwriter ever attended an elementary school? If she did, she would have heard of communicating vessels principle: you can't raise the level of the marsh by draining the connected river downstream...
Really, the amount of nonsense is not limited to the actions, the screen adaptation totally unnecessary exaggerated and/or twisted practically all original characters, making them nonsensical as well, Manman, the FL is this supersmart and superskilled woman (who would have blowned up herself in reality in the first eps, as I've explained above), Daqiao is a woman comitted just to one man to the point no other relation matters any more for her, and all the male characters are basically dumbed down.
Last but not least, the drama adaptation failed to maintain the atmosphere, the geist of its time, in many episodes. On the positive side, the chemistry between actors is ok, the artistic department also greatly did its job, horrible wigs aside. The direction was also fine until the last 5 eps, incredibly rushed, disorganised and incomplete.
So, unless you are able to completely switch off your brain, I wouldn't recommend you to watch this drama
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