Look Sparkly But Lacks Proper Substance
Positive Points
1. The cinematography, direction, color grading and editing were top-notch. A big thanks to the screenwriter for not misleading the viewers, as quite a few dramas did in the name of drama adaptation this year. The screenwriter changed quite a few things, but the main essence of the story was not destroyed. Though I have quite a few complaints with a few things, this adaptation can truly be called the drama adaptation of the original novel.
2. The cast was good, and quite a few known faces were there. Though I was not quite satisfied with Meng Zi Yi's acting, the rest of the cast did well. He Yu was the perfect guy to play the pretending-to-be-sickly, harmless, flirty, but actually scheming and manipulating everything from behind-the-scenes type crown prince. I can not name all, but quite a few of the supporting cast have got my attention, especially the actress playing Bu Shu Lin. She is the only woman I believed was a man.
3. The pacing of the story was good, and though it felt a bit dragged towards the middle, it ended well.
Negative Points
1. ML has been toned down a lot, and he is mostly shown as a love-brained, which is ridiculous. In a female-centric drama, what is this obsession with the screenwriter to show the ML as an incompetent, love-brained guy? Why can he not be sane as well just because he fell in love? I am not asking the writer to give too much focus on the ML, but at least give something to the viewers so that the ML to look incompetent. That chasing track of Bu Shulin was such a nice well-written track that gave everyone a spot to shine, but it was toned down a lot. Bu Shulin, Crown Prince, and the King and all other princes were all given their own stage. But the screenwriter had to make everything about the FL. Xiao Huayong is a complex character. He is not a love-obsessed guy at all. He loves the FL and yet did not lose his ruthlessness, and neither his vision as the future emperor. He knows where to control and where to use his soft-heartedness. It was such an elaborately written track but the drama toned down both Bu Shulin's capability, Xiao Huayong's testing Bu Shulin's capability, and saving her from the emperor and Shen Xihe's growing softness and the ML's mixed feelings about it. He was drawn to Shen Xihe's character but he neither turned soft-hearted nor did he lose his senses in love. Such a good thing was downplayed and ruined his character for me. ML being portrayed as a capable leader but hardly doing anything all the time and acting as a drama queen is quite inconsistent. As much as I loved his drama-queen sickly prince acting it would have been amazing to see him scheming too. The lack of it has totally affected his character for me.
2. That dividing the bed with the bell also did not make sense, considering Shen Xihe's character. She is decisive and emotionless right from the start. Once she makes a decision, she does not get back from her decision, nor does she make the other party (ML) incur a loss. She believes in trade, and it was normal to want a child that will help her secure her position as the mother of the future king, as her husband won't live long. So this useless bell thing does not make any sense to be honest. It just dragged the plot for me. Her being in love with her husband had to happen naturally. But going all the ways and dragging it out feels rather forced to me. There was no chemistry between the actors. That spark was missing in their love story, and I failed to connect to their story. Rather, I felt the 2nd ML & 2nd FL had better chemistry.
3. There is not much political scheming in this drama. I thought it would be a drama about succession struggle, and I was highly disappointed. The joint scheming between the ML & FL was completely left out in the drama, and their relationship felt quite boring to me. Their joint scheming was something I was looking forward in the drama. But all I got to see was the ML suddenly devoting his life for the FL and spending all the time in wooing her and the FL playing all hard to get. She did not feel like a character who was cold-hearted and was maintaining rationality for her well-being due to the representation of her character in the drama. What was the FL doing in the middle of a battlefield without battle gear and just came to shoot a single arrow. How ridiculous. I know it was to create a romantic atmosphere, but it didnot make any sense to me.
4. Meng Zi Yi is decent only in serious scenes but her expressions are very limited in other scenes. Especially since she has started to warm up to her husband, her expression was not up to par and sometimes even felt a bit cringy. Lately, all of her roles seem similar and in many of her future dramas she is likely playing a similar role. She at least needs to learn how to perfect acting for such roles since she is playing similar roles for quite some time.
5. Left too many things unexplained. Instead of the leads' joint scheming and cooperation, most of the time was spent on the ML wooing the FL. Why no mention of how the ML faked his death and how he reacted knowing the biggest truth of his life about who poisoned him?
Overall, if you do not like political scheming but rather cheesy romance, then you might like it. Otherwise, you would be disappointed like me.
1. The cinematography, direction, color grading and editing were top-notch. A big thanks to the screenwriter for not misleading the viewers, as quite a few dramas did in the name of drama adaptation this year. The screenwriter changed quite a few things, but the main essence of the story was not destroyed. Though I have quite a few complaints with a few things, this adaptation can truly be called the drama adaptation of the original novel.
2. The cast was good, and quite a few known faces were there. Though I was not quite satisfied with Meng Zi Yi's acting, the rest of the cast did well. He Yu was the perfect guy to play the pretending-to-be-sickly, harmless, flirty, but actually scheming and manipulating everything from behind-the-scenes type crown prince. I can not name all, but quite a few of the supporting cast have got my attention, especially the actress playing Bu Shu Lin. She is the only woman I believed was a man.
3. The pacing of the story was good, and though it felt a bit dragged towards the middle, it ended well.
Negative Points
1. ML has been toned down a lot, and he is mostly shown as a love-brained, which is ridiculous. In a female-centric drama, what is this obsession with the screenwriter to show the ML as an incompetent, love-brained guy? Why can he not be sane as well just because he fell in love? I am not asking the writer to give too much focus on the ML, but at least give something to the viewers so that the ML to look incompetent. That chasing track of Bu Shulin was such a nice well-written track that gave everyone a spot to shine, but it was toned down a lot. Bu Shulin, Crown Prince, and the King and all other princes were all given their own stage. But the screenwriter had to make everything about the FL. Xiao Huayong is a complex character. He is not a love-obsessed guy at all. He loves the FL and yet did not lose his ruthlessness, and neither his vision as the future emperor. He knows where to control and where to use his soft-heartedness. It was such an elaborately written track but the drama toned down both Bu Shulin's capability, Xiao Huayong's testing Bu Shulin's capability, and saving her from the emperor and Shen Xihe's growing softness and the ML's mixed feelings about it. He was drawn to Shen Xihe's character but he neither turned soft-hearted nor did he lose his senses in love. Such a good thing was downplayed and ruined his character for me. ML being portrayed as a capable leader but hardly doing anything all the time and acting as a drama queen is quite inconsistent. As much as I loved his drama-queen sickly prince acting it would have been amazing to see him scheming too. The lack of it has totally affected his character for me.
2. That dividing the bed with the bell also did not make sense, considering Shen Xihe's character. She is decisive and emotionless right from the start. Once she makes a decision, she does not get back from her decision, nor does she make the other party (ML) incur a loss. She believes in trade, and it was normal to want a child that will help her secure her position as the mother of the future king, as her husband won't live long. So this useless bell thing does not make any sense to be honest. It just dragged the plot for me. Her being in love with her husband had to happen naturally. But going all the ways and dragging it out feels rather forced to me. There was no chemistry between the actors. That spark was missing in their love story, and I failed to connect to their story. Rather, I felt the 2nd ML & 2nd FL had better chemistry.
3. There is not much political scheming in this drama. I thought it would be a drama about succession struggle, and I was highly disappointed. The joint scheming between the ML & FL was completely left out in the drama, and their relationship felt quite boring to me. Their joint scheming was something I was looking forward in the drama. But all I got to see was the ML suddenly devoting his life for the FL and spending all the time in wooing her and the FL playing all hard to get. She did not feel like a character who was cold-hearted and was maintaining rationality for her well-being due to the representation of her character in the drama. What was the FL doing in the middle of a battlefield without battle gear and just came to shoot a single arrow. How ridiculous. I know it was to create a romantic atmosphere, but it didnot make any sense to me.
4. Meng Zi Yi is decent only in serious scenes but her expressions are very limited in other scenes. Especially since she has started to warm up to her husband, her expression was not up to par and sometimes even felt a bit cringy. Lately, all of her roles seem similar and in many of her future dramas she is likely playing a similar role. She at least needs to learn how to perfect acting for such roles since she is playing similar roles for quite some time.
5. Left too many things unexplained. Instead of the leads' joint scheming and cooperation, most of the time was spent on the ML wooing the FL. Why no mention of how the ML faked his death and how he reacted knowing the biggest truth of his life about who poisoned him?
Overall, if you do not like political scheming but rather cheesy romance, then you might like it. Otherwise, you would be disappointed like me.
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