EdithKiss-Nite

Disappointed

I was very happy to have found a good C drama with a wonderful/talented cast, exciting storyline and beautiful music and scenery. Until.....halfway through the series, it all went downhill. Way too many plots and schemes and bad guys after bad guys, bad plots, after bad plots, it became way, way too much and too confusing. Even the FL lead became unlikeable and cold/ aligning with the enemy for no reason. I honestly didn't think that the ML and FL had any chemistry to begin with and the writers have chosen to write off the little chemistry there might have been to make the FL cold and unlikable. Ending was rushed and ignored all the rest of the characters' futures or follow up stories in lieu of an ambiguous end for the lead characters. I would not watch this again, way too depressing and complicated for no reason....unless......they would make a follow up part 2 with all the couples development, coronation of new emperor, ML /FL character growth and an overall happier storyline.

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Great story/writing but not so great adaptation

I truly wanted to love this drama but I got bored quite quickly and skipped through lots of the boring blah, blah, blah conversations. It's probably just me but I felt that there was absolutely no chemistry between the leads, even when FL tried to play cutesy, her acting felt totally fake. The screen writers also made the mistake of keeping the FL lying act, schemes way too prolonged (23 episodes ) so by the time the truth was revealed, nobody cared anymore as viewers got bored already. I also had a bit of an issue with almost all of the actors/actresses looked exactly the same and it was hard to figure out who was whom, (example the FL and the Princess and some of the dancers looked almost identical) same with many of the male characters, very similar faces, age etc.
ML has a beautiful , very distinctive face/features and shows lots of emotions on his face throughout the show. On the other hand, the FL has a very average, non distinctive looking face that barely shows any emotions throughout the drama. Their "romance" looks fake and cold, lacks real emotional connection between the two actors. The Vibe/Chemistry was definitely off between the ML and FL characters
Overall, I found the storyline very interesting but the adoption not so much as up until past 23 episodes, it was pretty boring with the never ending poisoned then healed, injured and healed, more injury and healing over and over again plus the same schemes, same villains, same FL lying over and over..... Besides boredom, it became pretty exhausting to watch and I had to use my fast forward quite a lot
Good stuff: I absolutely loved, loved the spirit animals ( the dragon and the cat) and their friendship was especially heartwarming, good actors. Visually, it was probably one of the best fantasy dramas I have seen. Fantastic scenery, dream world, wonderful special effects . Loved the music and the beautiful costumes. You can tell that great efforts, lots of creativity and hard work went into this production. Excellent job team!! Thank you for the dreamy beautiful world, experience.

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Exhausting, sad, chaotic, confusing storyline

First of all: Let me pay my respect and tribute to Alan Yu (Yu Meng Long) as it was wonderful to see him in this drama which sadly, probably was his last performance/appearance. I have been devastated by the tragic end of such beautiful, young, talented, very much beloved actor/individual. Rest in peace Alan❤️

As for the show, I watched this show mainly because I am a big fan of Bai Lu and Joseph Zeng. Having seen pretty much all of Bai Lu C dramas, I must say her character in this drama is not my favorite. Bai Lu is a very talented, beautiful young actress and her forte is her unique facial expressions that bring the likeability to each and all characters she plays. So her being cast in this drama as a cold, unhappy, angry, frozen faced FL is just not impressive or even likeable most of the time. This drama is good if you like stabbings, beatings, blood, killings, hate, grudge, revenge over and over with very, very little lukewarm romance thrown in a few times here and there
For me, the storyline was very confusing like someone just cut and pasted the scenes together without rhime and rhythm. The ML gets stabbed over and over at least 15 times and then walks away as the story cuts to another scene like nothing happened. There is complete chaos as the scenes simply don't fit together and even though, eventually there are explanations in later scenes, some of which makes no sense at all, and by then, I was sooo exhausted by the chaos and long winded dialogs that I stopped caring and fast forwarded a lot just to end the misery.

Good stuff: beautiful visuals, gorgeous scenery and set designs along with absolutely gorgeous outfits. I also loved the music and the special effects, fights and spells. The casting was also perfect with many beautiful, talented actors. You can tell that this show was created by a lot of talented people. Thank you all for the great entertainment.

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It's like watching paint dry or grass grow

I only watched this C drama because of Leo Wu. Handsome, very talented young actor who pretty much carried the whole show., dragging the FL along. Unfortunately, the FL had not much to add to the quality of the story with her very bland, one dimensional acting skills. Her face was pretty much emotionless throughout the story with artificial shyness, hesitancy, behaving like a highschool girl who has never seen a boy in her life, which later turned into her cold shoulder behavior for no reason at all. Unfortunately, she has never gone through any positive character development throughout the story. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the ML has fallen deeply in love on a first glance with a mediocre looking, bland personality, forced shyness type of girl. Why? Totally unrealistic. I don't mind slow burning love stories but this movie wins the cake on no action, no conversations, bland, awkward moments and on top of being the slowest most boring movie I have recently had the missfortune to watch. The 6 point for acting is purely given for Leo Wu. Maybe if he had a different, more compatible FL to work with who had charisma and a captivating personality, it would have been a huge upgrade to the quality of the production. Also, adding some interesting, (or any) intelligent, flirty conversations might have helped the awkward, silences and situations between the ML and FL characters. I will not be watching this show again. Thanks for the effort production team!

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Silly, childish, boring

I love Rom Coms, but not this one. Let's see ...a very good looking, savvy, highly disciplined, brilliant CEO suddenly has a brain freeze and offers a ludicrous amount of money to buy a company just so a plain looking, (he just met) secretary would come to work for him. Seriously? Since he supposedly has a memory loss but finds the secretary "familiar" he falls in love with someone he just met and stars pursuing her. The secretary seems to have prior dating history with him but she keeps playing hard to get. So scene after scene, the ML keeps pursuing and pursuing, the FL keeps refusing, playing hard to get, and this goes on and on and on and on...it 's extremely boring. In the maintime, scenes are filled in with 5 extremely annoying, never actually seen working co workers who gossip continuously nonstop and that's all they do. And let's not forget the Intern a very, very annoying young girl aggressively pursuing, stalking chasing a happless young doctor. How many times do we have to keep seeing this character? Nothing interesting or intelligent or even somewhat entertaining storyline here. The whole thing is flat. I also wished that even though it's not a big budget production but they should at least had a professional hair dresser as the FL hair was a terrible mess throughout the whole drama. Her hairdo was out of fashion and made her look unattractive and older
Overall, you will need to dial down on your intelligence and muster up lots of patience if you want to watch this program. 0 rewatch value for me.

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Tepid

I was eagerly waiting for this sequel to Flourished Peony which I loved, loved. And now, I am pretty disappointed as instead of any character or love story development, the characters are the same, instead of any romantic development, it's just bad guys causing trouble over and over and episodes after episodes. In fact, the FL lead' s character and appearance has become very, very harsh and unlikable. I just finished episode 12 and can only hope that the remainder of the show will become more interesting and softer/romantic. Please don't disappoint your fans who/whom have eagerly been waiting for this sequel. So far, not really great.

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Too much and too long conflict between FL&ML to be enjoyable plus the highly unlikeable FL

I am not impressed with this series. I felt the chemistry was way off between the FL and ML, or to be precise, there was none. The FL actress' lack of emotional depth and flat, mostly sour faced expression and bland performance has totally ruined the supposed love and chemistry between the lead characters. And to save the lack of chemistry Chen Fei Yu has been over acting, way above what a normal love relationship would look like in real life. Hence, this whole "love affair" is far from believable, i.e. a gorgeous, smart, talented, kind, from a privileged background ML falls head over heels for a very plain looking, no personality or talent, stubborn, cold, hateful and mean, materialistic, playing hard to get poor girl. Seriously? Totally unrealistic . All the supposed love scenes look like the actors are just reading off the script, no warmth, or any kind of chemistry. Maybe if they cast a more likeable actress as the FL, at least the romance would have been more believable. Perfect example of wrong casting ruinning a perfectly good story. The second FL / ML romance and chemistry was much better and more believable. And what's with all these career obsessed, hard core aggressive young female characters lacking any feminity or compassion and warmth? I hope young women in real life are not taken in by the b.s. of "career above everything else" as the highly competitive "Profit above integrity" business motto actually doesn't care much about young people or their dreams, profit is the only king.

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Misleading Title, there is NO Romance only a full cast of unlikeable characters

My bad ..I usually check out viewers' comments before spending my precious time watching a C/drama series. Unfortunately, not this time as I was too excited to watch Wallace Chung in his new role....big mistake!
I don't know how did they convince Wallace Chung to play in this awful/trainwreck of a production. I wish he didn't play that unlikeable, gutless Mama's boy without a spine character. I have been wondering if this story was written and directed by AI as there was not even one character that was likeable or humanly relatable. The writers and director seem to have forgotten the very basics of good story telling, ie. To capture/hook your audience, an interesting storyline beginning is a must. Secondly, creating likeable characters (couples with great chemistry in romance movies) to get the viewers become emotionally invested, empathize and follow the characters throughout until the end. In this drama, I honestly couldn't find any likeable character, be as the main leads or supporting characters.
1. Vicious/Vile Mom and her whole family
2. ML /Spineless, gutless Momma's boy with very poor judgement in all areas of his life ( not likeable)
3. FL /soft whispering doormat cold as an iceberg with no feelings or sincere empathy to anyone but herself
4. "Best friend"/ vicious, jealous, parasite living off his brother too lazy to work and no skills
5. Brother of best friend- he may get 1 point for likeability for being kind and helpful but totally clueless
6. Father of FL - What father abandons his daughter and disappears for 10 years without a word when she needs him the most?
7. "Fiance" of the ML/ A calculating woman using his kid to marry a man who clearly doesn't love her, red flag ignored, i.e. there is absolutely no physical touch of any kind between the two.. don't matter to her
8. Kid/ good little actor but his character is not really likeable as he comes across as an entitled/ spoiled nosy kid that all adults around him should worship and obey
SO BASICALLY, there is not even one character that the viewer could like and truly feel for and emphasize with.
Not to mention the huge holes in the storyline, i.e. ML was frantically searching for the FL by knocking on random doors in France, when he knew very well which exact ballet institute the FL applied to and the ballet circle being small, it would have been easy to find. OR, how did MIL get away with possessing the child, where were the hospital staff, nurses, doctors, social services that is required to sign over custody not to mention if the child didn't make it, by law, this has to be disclosed to the mother. Did the FL even ask for the funeral arrangements of her baby? Huge inconsistencies. OVERALL, this is a very upsetting series, characters with robot like cold emotions, and lack of it, negligent attitudes, this is perfect as an example of an AI written, AI directed story without the nuisance of the display of real human emotions.
Waste of time, I wish I have read the reviews beforehand.

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Underwhelming

Easy watch, pretty bland. Storyline is not bad and the potential was there to make it into an exciting romance, story but they missed and the story flatlined. I didn't feel much chemistry between neither the first couple ML/FL nor the second couple ML/FL. Actually the second couple was a bit more interesting and funny, however on the romance part, there were visible signs of avoidance of kissing by the actors and you could tell that there was absolutely no physical attraction between the characters. First couple also seemed to lack real chemistry and in fact they were more awkward with each other than anything else. Maybe a better pairing of actors would have made the "love" story more believable. And the final 3 episodes..OMG ..I have never seen a more boring, mundane ending of a supposed double couple romance story. Pretty disappointing.

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Entertaining

It's a good/entertaining storyline and like most costume C dramas it has pretty much everything, i.e. court intrigue, politics, excellent fighting scenes, scheming bad guys, good guys winning, love and attraction between beautiful male and female leads, wedding, happy ending. It's not a completely unique storyline but I was entertained. However, at times I was a little bit confused as most of the "elders/parents" actors all look a like and hard to distinguish whom are who. Same with the plots, too confusing because of the similarities of the characters and their looks. In any case, great job crew! Thanks for the great entertainment.

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Great production

I watched this show because one of my favorite actors Liu Xue Yi. He is a gorgeous, very talented versatile actor and I wasn't disappointed with how he portrayed his character in this drama. The female lead Ju Jing Yi is also a very beautiful talented actress although I found her character portrayal a bit bland and the chemistry between ML/FL lukewarm at best. I actually found the original Yang CaWe character more interesting and more of a natural beauty. Too bad she didn't get much screen time. I also really loved Li Ge Yang, an upcoming young talent. Overall, the storyline was very interesting and entertaining if you can overlook a few inconsistencies here and there. Beautiful music, great customes and fantastic photography, scenery. Loved it and highly recommend it. Thanks for the great entertainment

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beautiful sad love story

What a beautiful love story. I have been watching tons of C dramas and can only remember a few of them. This story is definitely one that I will remember. I just wish the end wasn't so very, very sad but beautiful nevertheless. I try only to watch stories with happy endings and forgot to check this one before I started to watch. Won't be rewatching it again as there is already enough sadness in this world, but this story will stay with me for sure. Loved the actors, great job. Music/songs are also beautiful and memorable.
Thank you for this beautiful, albeit sad drama.

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Entertaining

Overall, it's a good storyline that keeps your attention. I loved the characters and the chemistry between the ML/FL/2ML. Beautiful, talented actors and not too many annoying characters which is typical in most C dramas, i.e. whining, super annoying childlike females ( only a few in this drama). The plot is interesting and original up to a point, at which time it becomes too repetitive, namely, every episode is about chasing, killing, torturing the FL over and over again. It gets really boring. Also, how did a modern " military" girl got all the ancient Marshal art skills to perfection in an instant when she took over the body of a girl who was weak and timid? Ok, we get the qin music part as the " host" was a good player.
Overall, it's a good show and entertaining. I recommend this drama, have already watched it twice (second time fast forwarded the repetitive scenes)
Thank you for the great entertainment.

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Nonsense

Just watched this older series and regretted it. Total nonsense. I have never seen a more annoying FL character. Big mouth, low class, rude, no manners, no class, delusional dishonest. Very, very unlikable character. The ML supposed to be a smart detective but can't figure out the deceit and lies right in front of him?? Very childish, naive storyline. Waste of time to watch this show, I only watched it halfway through because the ML (Wallace ) is one of my favorite actors but couldn't take much more of the FL character so had to stop. Don't waste your time on this.

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Happy, feel good, must watch

I absolutely loved this series. It begins as a simple love story which I loved, loved, especially with the insane chemistry between the ML/FL lead. Then the storyline gets even better with unexpected twists and acts. This series has pretty much everything, love, romance, bit of sadness, comedy, love of family, loyalty and friendships. I loved the whole crew/characters, aunties, grannies, school friends, and of course the beautiful male and female lead and their slowly evolving love for each other. Thank you for the great entertainment and giving us, viewers a happy, feel good time. Thank you all. I will definitely rewatch this many times in the future

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