LZK

First I have to say: This is the first ever review I write here because I think it deserves to be given a chance (only if you like heavy angst tbh)
I thought this is just a bad drama at first, but I wanted to give it a chance regardless, even when I finished it and was in so much pain, but as I actually let some time past I missed it? there were definitely some scenes I loved, and there was some fresh vibes that is hard to get in other dramas, I skimmed through the nonspoilery reviews before watching and I expected it to be awful, but actually it wasn't that bad after I sat with it!?
it helps that I wasn't on online hype train before it came tho, just watched it out of curiosity and did have an emotionaly rollercoaster time with it.
I usually start republic era dramas and never finish them, that's why I still wanted to give this a try to see if I just don't like the era or there's a chance I will enjoy it, this was the first one that actually made me watch till the end.
Now onto the actual quality:
one thing I didn't see in the reviews is the talk abt action, come on the action was actually pretty good! even tho I did wonder how the hell QY was able to perfectly fight with anything despite being a doctor lol, IK he was in prison and all but anyways, the action really had good choreography for the whole drama tbh.
the music composition itself was SO GOOD, I love the OSTs of this drama, part of why I keep missing it after weeks of finishing it is the OST, both the vocalized songs and the instrumentals, I even added them to my playlists to listen regularly, however, yes there are times the editing on the drama is bad and they're not using the amazing OSTs well.
and on the characters, I think everyone can say the focus of the character writing was really qinyi, he grew well despite all the bad treatment, I think they did want to signify that bad treatment shouldn't justify a person with questionable choices or sth, bc they kept paralleling Qingyi with others over how everyone is miserable but chooses differently. Susu tho..... most of the time I'm just shouting in my head "GIRL WHY". Granted there are usually reasons but a lot of times it's just for the sake of hurting Qingyi and audience let's be fr lol
the script writing was definitely one of the weakest parts of the drama tho, yes I agree with most of the reviews, it had so much potential and they could deliver the same story and events with a better execution, I wouldn't even say the plot is bad, no the concept and plot are also part of the potential, it's mostly the execution of the story that is oscillating between decent and terrible throughout the 40 episodes.
Personally for me it was like this:
first few episodes -> too tropey... as if they literally tried to put all the sloppy fanfictions tropes of love-hate into it.
around the middle 10 or so episodes where they move actual high stake plot -> wait it actually got good!?!?
the transition between first arc and second arc (the 6 years jump) -> ....... sloppy writing.....
towards the end-> ?!?!?!?!!? WHY IS IT SUDDENLY SO TRAGIC
you could have done well with less self-sacrifice advertising please...... T_T

All in all tho, if you do like angst (and can handle miserable sad lives) this does deserve a chance.
PS: if you liked banana fish the anime despite how shitty ash's life is, you probably will like Murong Qingyi's suffering too (you probably are a masochist like me lol).