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The Definition of "Average"
What do you get when you take a vertical micro-drama plot and stretch it out to make it fit a Mini-drama standard? You get The Silent Wife.Take all the bingo cards and tropes, tone them down and there you have it. This show was THAT boringly predictable.
Now don't get me wrong, if you HAVEN'T watched a bunch of vertical dramas and/or read a bunch of "bad" fiction then this may still get your blood pumping and you might even like it as novel and exciting. But don't expect the FL to be a smart person or learn anything 🤷♀️ It's a VERY specific niche fantasy show and that NEVER happens in these unless it's a Reverse Uno trope.
6.5/10 (Could have written almost the entire plot synopsis without watching it)
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Mediocre Beginning That Actually Only Gets Better
The beginning of this show feels a little odd at first. The pacing is odd, the editing is odd, the weird comedic aphrodisiac play is odd, and more. But then something interesting happens... Where for a lot of shows this sets the mood and you drop or suffer, this one actually DOES get better with each episode.Now this isn't to say there are no plotholes or logic gaps. There are logic gaps large enough to drive a truck through... But all the over the top craziness does start to grow on you, the main leads relationship starts to settle and strengthen, and before you know it you're over halfway through without blinking.
As long as you can check your logic at the door this should be a good ride. Also, this might be the first show where I'm honestly confused if they ACTUALLY kissed at all.
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Addictive But Don't Look Too Close
This show was addicting to watch but FULL of hand-waving and plot holes. Some were so small you barely noticed and thought "maybe I just missed something" but others were so big you could drive you car through.That said, I was INVESTED wanting to know what was going to happen next. This show took a soup of tropes and made them actually feel mostly fresh. From gender-bending to face-swapping; palace politics, mindcontrol and betrayal, there was a little bit of everything in this plot.
The music had an intense, epic feeling to it that helped carry that feeling of getting addicted and NEEDING to know what will happen next.
8.5/10 (bumped up for enjoyment)
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Gorgeous Drama Bogged Down By "TorturePron"
If you've ever wanted to watch a show where you question if the sole purpose by the end was to see JUST what they could get away with without being censored.... this is possibly your drama.Positives... The acting was mostly good, the cinematography was constantly good and the sound design was phenomenal.
Where it begins to fail is that it loses narrative structure as it devolves further and further into shock and awe territory.
By the end you are LITERALLY no longer even going "WTF" because by that point you've honestly seen it all. And I do mean this "LITERALLY" as for example... there is a scene of one guy urinating on another.
There are multiple triggers in this show and many of them are again seemingly only played for shock value with very little narrative need.
So... who is this show FOR?
If you are looking for something different.
If you are curious about just WHAT can be shown in mini dramas now apparently.
If you can suspend almost ALL sense of reality.
If the emotion you want to feel most is rage at the injustice of the world.
If you don't require a lot of skinship or "traditional" romantic trappings.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
The narrative is bogged down TOO much by all the shock value. If there had been less the rating would probably be higher as again, the production qualities were quite good.
Spoiler comment for more wtfery.
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Simple Palace Intrigue Drama
First, despite this show being set up in horizontal format, it essentially is a vertical drama. If you remove all the credits the entire show is somewhere between 3 and 4 hours long. The plot is made to look good in theory but if you don't turn your brain COMPLETELY off you notice all the plot holes, inconsistencies, and absurdities. For instance, the scene where she has TWO men in her room at night. There are spies everywhere and yet she doesn't see any issue with doing this....Something to note is that the synopsis given about a "timer to solve the case" and "secrets of past and present dynasties" is false. Neither of these aspects have anything to do with the final show presented. Perhaps in the original concept of a show where there were going to be 40 episodes and Easter eggs would allow the viewer to control the narrative these synopsis details make sense; but not in the present show.
Ultimately I enjoyed my experience watching this drama and ranting about how dumb it is. I found it entertaining but there are absolutely better palace dramas in vertical and horizontal format.
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Red Flag FL Seeks Revenge By Pitting Brothers Against Eachother In Love.
This was quite the ride! It absolutely lived up to my expectations for YZX more than Unspeakable Longing did 😅. It kept me glued to my screen each night as midnight rolled around, having me just waiting for the SINGLE episode a day to update. Anyone watching it later now that it's done airing just won't have "quite" the same nail-biting experience.The Negatives...
This show screams for wanting MORE. Episodes are roughly 10 minutes disregarding opening/closing ost themes and plot points are quickly moved along from one to the next. Often people end up complaining about side character development full length shows so if you are one of those you'd likely appreciate the direct approach of focusing almost strictly on the singular plot line but personally I found myself wanting to know EVERYTHING about everyone... I wanted to know how she grew up, I wanted to know more about the brother's father and the conflicts with his wives, about the grandmother (and slap her), and probably most importantly MORE about the struggle with YZX character Yeting and the Crown Prince.
That said... there aren't really any major dangling plot threads regarding any of these issues, you get told a bare bones story enough to piece together all the backstory you need for the characters and their motivations to make sense. I just KNOW there's more story there that didn't have time to be told though so it was an unfulfilled want.
The biggest reason this becomes a "negative" is because it hinders the romantic triangle to a small degree. Focus is placed on her with one character then switches them back and forth again until I had a harder time believing there were actual feeling between her and Muran than I did her and Yeting. Additional scenes of her alone, conflicted in her room perhaps hashing out her TRUE feelings with her maid might have helped sway the audience one way or another but then, perhaps that's exactly WHY those scenes don't exist?
Which leads me to, The Positives...
First, while vastly different stories, similar to L&BF this show relies on only two songs to convey the depth of varied emotions playing on screen. The majority of the ending OSTs are the female led song with only a few, impactful instances of the male led song. This change-up of the songs is actually one reason to NOT watch the final FULL VERSION whenever it comes out as they will inevitably cut out the end credits and those changes will lose their punch-to-the-gut impact.
Both songs portray a sad, lingering and emotional love full of conflict. Different portions of the songs play different lyrics over various scenes to better convey the emotions on screen at the time, milking those songs for every drop of emotion. Both have been added to my Playlist but I've especially listened to the male sung one on repeat as the despair in his voice is POWERFUL.
The characters here are not "cookie-cutter" and all three display actions going against their conflicting emotional state. Each character has their own self-interests and it becomes addicting trying to unravel WHY they do something when it seemingly won't benefit them and instead will only hurt them.
Our FL is known as "Ban Meng" to the MLs. Her goal is straight and simple in theory, but when does anything simple ever actually turn out such? Her background turns her into a conniving "Green Tea B*tch" type character as she sets out to purposefully manipulate the MLs for her revenge.
Rather than ML/2ML I'm going to label the brother's ML 1 and ML 2 and strictly go off age (older brother/younger brother).
ML1 is the older brother Yeting played by Yan Zi Xian. He is initially portrayed on the screen as cold, unfeeling, and utterly ruthless. He represents overly ambitious Red Flag characters but the story does well as it moves along to paint him as more than one dimensional. He is a Lion.
ML2 is the younger brother Muran played by Zhao Huan Ran. His initial appearance has him portrayed as youthful, carefree, and innocent. The opposite of his brother, he is originally made to represent an unambitious and Laissez-faire, Green Flag character. He is "a Golden Retriever raised by Foxes" type mix.
The revenge ending was short but concluded and wrapped up completely. The loveline ending was longer, devoting 1 1/2 episodes to resolving who, if any one, she ends up with and why.
Final verdict: 9/10 personally
Majority should find it good enough it rate an 8+/10 as it keeps you guessing and the chemistry is FIRE! 🔥🔥🔥
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Easy To Watch Wife Re-stealing Plot
On the whole this show won't blow anyone away with an inventive or original storyline but it was certainly an easy watch. Both the ML and the 2ML were both madly in love with the FL and for most of the show there is no indication given as to who the father is. The Emperor steals the FL from her husband of 5 years after regaining the throneIn the past she tried to kill him on their wedding night (from synopsis). The FL shows care towards both of the males.
If this is something that you don't like to see it will absolutely not be a show for you as despite having an idea who she would end up with as the ML in the end, it is rather uncertain how everything will play out.
If there is one thing that truly limits this show it is that there are a LOT of missing details so we have a very bare bones story that leaves you with questions if you're that sort of person.
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Pretty Show w/ Rushed Ending
This show was definitely pretty. Pretty sets, pretty overlay / scene change screens, pretty (and varied) costumes, and of course... pretty actors 😅🤷♀️. One of it's positives is that it also had above average cgi for being a mini drama (I have absolutely seen worse cgi in full length shows, let alone what's normally shown in minis).Actors/Actresses that stand out:
Zhong LiLi as Shang You will possibly make you want to slap her or strangle her for how dumb and naive she is she is at certain points of the show. Not EVERY one who says they will help you has your best interests at heart girl...
Guan Yue as Si Yuan was amazing to watch for multiple reasons. One, he CAN act and he CAN emote. This show required him to NOT do that and I swear the director told him "no, stop, too much, more stone face...." The fact he has expressions and "acts" well later in the show after he would HAVE emotions makes me convinced this is the fact. His scenes of self-punishment were 🔥 and his white-hair transformation was 🙈.
Yin Rui as Feng Shancha was a VERY complex character that had you feeling bad for her one second and wanting to kill her yourself the next. She obviously has a good ability to elicit emotions with her face. She has a trigger warning scene happen TO her.
The plot... tries. It starts out clear and focused but as it goes on it slowly begins to devolve until we get to the last couple episodes where they cram way too much plot into too little run time. This causes characters to flip suddenly, threads to drop completely, and sudden final reveals to lose their emotional impact because they come from nowhere. Warning, you will NEVER find out WHY the ML was blind and near the FL in the 1st episode 🤷♀️.
Honestly, the show needed to be 30 episodes at least to better develop that ending.
Finally, the original title is 3 Lives Without Sorrow and it's "obviously" supposed to be a 3 lives show but don't bother trying to scratch your head trying to count which "life" they're on; it won't make sense. We'll, maybe it will... another user said this show is "basically" a mini-drama version of TTEOTM but I've yet to see that yet so can't say what the parallels are.
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When An Interesting Premise Physically Hurts To Watch...
On paper this show sounds like it should have worked. It should have had a push and pull of angst with an underlying tug of tragic, forbidden romance defying all odds and reason...But it just doesn't.
It is VERY unfair to compare one drama to another but in this instance there are honestly a LOT of similarities between this drama and the show Please Remember Me and while personally I found some of THAT show lacking in execution, it is FAR superior to what they attempted to do here.
But let's assume that you have come to this show unfamiliar with the other one. A major issue with this show is the lack of actual feeling of any connection to the past events. The audience is shown a few VERY brief flashbacks and TOLD that the couple were in love but the "showing" lasted maybe 1 or 2 minutes worth of flashbacks total. It lacks conviction and as such, the present day relationship also feels flat. They have no actual scenes lending the audience to the feeling that they are "growing closer" but rather that SHE knows who he is so already has feelings in place; and HE, while not having present "conscious" feelings, has instead subconscious feelings from painting her face for the past number of years.
The only redeeming soul in this drama was the Star Sect Chief who was a light of sun to watch in his scenes. To say 2nd Lead Syndrome... MAJOR. This man is SUCH a green flag for her and I hope to see more of this actor in the future.
Finally, this is a weird one because it wasn't "boring", it was just.... BAD. It held my attention and I began hate watching it and it physically hurt to watch the bad script and illogical things happeningon screen... but I wasn't ever "bored". 🤡
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Well Done Palace Intrigue w/ Believable Romance
In the realm of political politics mini dramas, this one was very well done and explained. There are no major loose threads or plotholes which drag down the story by the ending, instead everything appears to be well plotted and paced within their episode constraints.Often when dealing with a ruling party making the ACTUAL ruler into a puppet, I personally feel a lingering question of "why not just charge the person with a crime and kill them?". This one made use of trying to explain WHY this doesn't actually work within this story and the steps needed to EVENTUALLY remove the person.
The main leads both make interesting characters as neither one is happy with the person they have to pretend to be but they are helpless at the beginning to do anything about their circumstances. Over the course of the show this helplessness of course changes BUT they exchange it for even HEAVIER weights around their necks.
Meanwhile, the antagonist himself is a curious character I would have LOVED to have seen as the actual main character. His interactions with the FLs aunt were something I wasn't expecting to enjoy so much. My personal preferred special bonus episode would be if they gave the viewers more of HIS character backstory.
Things that "may" make you DISLIKE the show from my opinion:
● Whenever there is an emotional scene the camera moves, almost shaking. You may not even notice this but personally it made me nauseous whenever it happened
● The filter is VERY smooth, forget pores, there are times the ML looked like this was almost a hyper-realistic animated video game character
● Some fight scenes are well thought out and others are just "blink and you miss swords swinging around"
● While the "women's rights" aspect isn't NEARLY as heavy handed and degrading as some other recent dramas, they still exist and "some" aspects seen over idealized
● Biggest personal plothole: how does NO ONE but the aunt and ML know she's a female (this includes later maids and eunuchs in and out of her rooms)
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Well... It's an "Uncle" plot...
This is yet another vertical drama flipped horizontal and made longer. It will cater to its specific demographic and it will either work for you or it won't.Personally, it didn't work for me.
My apathy started when my brain was more intent on staring at his apparently sat on glasses in the beginning episodes, it continued when the "spicy" scenes were barely there and I personally couldn't find the chemistry in her stroking his arm or shoulder all the time to get a rise, and the death toll for me was that there were THREE villians in this show and none of them ACTUALLY seemed dangerous to me... I mean call the police if you had evidence she was being stalked 3 years ago... 🤡
I thought the ending was the MOST funny because all I could think was "if you were going to solve the issue THAT way why wait and not do it the next day or even a week later?"
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By Day One Way, By Night Another...
This shows plot is rather tight all the way through from beginning to end. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep your attention as well as some romantic scenes BUT know that romance isn't really the "focus" of this but more a side plot. There are no spicy scenes, but it does include sweet romantic scenes.Based on the initial plot premise of two women sharing one body it's obvious before you begin the show that the end will not satisfy everyone no matter how it was done, however, I truly think there were clues left that point to a definitive ending. Whether it's the ending you actually want, only you would know. I personally enjoyed it.
As an aside, episodes work well as both episode format and compilation, blending almost seamlessly to be like a super long movie.
9/10
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Light On Coherency, Heavy On Pretty & Spice
If there is one important thing to know before beginning this show, it is that there is little point in trying to follow the plot beyond: The FL has an object in her body needed to free the MLs people. She forms a bond with him that makes it so that when she sneezes, he shows up to protect her. She wants to clear her family's name. The ML has an evil entity inside him that wants to kill.Anything and everything else within the show is irrelevant because nothing is ever fully explained. Each episode manages to hint that maybe 'next' episode more information will be doled out, only for that hope to die at the end of the next episode and the following after. With enough of these instances of shattered plot development coherency, what's left behind is a male lead often in various states of undress who doesn't shy away from being petty or jealous when he's not devouring the female leads face in yet another kiss scene.
The acting during emotional portions was rather well done. Scenes where the eyes needed to switch back and forth during the MLs inner struggles were praise worthy. Likewise, the scenes showcasing blank, vacant stares are also interesting to see on the screen.
If you are able to turn your brain completely off to the plot inconsistencies and lack of follow-through the show is watchable. It's best quality is its shameless ML and his comedic jealous nature around other people. As long as expectations for a coherent plot are removed, you should be able to sit back and enjoy the show.
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This Short OTT Angsty Trope-packed Melodrama Won't Be For Everyone
This series will absolutely stand as either a love it or hate it type series for most viewers. The synopsis is just detailed enough to entice a viewer but honestly if only going off the official synopsis you'll be blindsided by the truly toxic relationship Gu Yi (Luo Zheng) and Qiao Jing (He Rui Xian) have developed over their three year time together.From the first episode tropes are thrown at the screen in record numbers. It would not suprise me in the slightest if the writer began this project with a sheet of paper detailing a list of tropes and put a check mark next to each one each time one was used. This makes for an over the top and highly dramatic show that has the viewer wondering if they even want any of the characters to even survive the shows ending, let alone have a Happy Ending.
Tonal shifts among episodes zigzag back and forth to the point of whiplash, especially in the first half of the series. Reality is thrown out the window as we have a front row seat to a ML who defies logic of having had a heart transplant as he eats and drinks whatever he wants and even runs miles after being hospitalized so he can see the FL. By the last four episodes though, even with the dramatic events still occurring and needing to be uncovered, the tone definitely shifts to being more easy-going and uplifting instead of leaving you with heart-pounding anxiety.
Characters:
Gu Yi - Beginning the show he starts as a stereotype of a possessive, self-entitled, mentally ill male lead and descends into stalking and emotionally blackmailing QJ to force her return to his side. He goes through several trials in his effort to redeem himself, failing in his sincerity until his ultimate fall allows him to prove he is capable of more.
Qiao Jing - This is definitely a complicated woman and if anything I wish the show could have been longer to have explored her emotional turmoil more. When she walks out on GY the first time you want to cheer after what she's gone through. When she drags her suitcase back each time something happens and she gives in it hurts. The criticism though comes from the drama being as short as it is and not allowing enough time to fully showcase her feelings of turmoil between Gu Yi/Su Juan/Bai Yun.
Bai Yun - The first third 2nd ML, BY is the foil to GY. His strength is his kindness and patience and he is willing to take a punch and go toe to toe to protect QJ from GY. Unfortunately, once he defeated as a rival he literally disappears from the drama never to be seen or mentioned again. This leads the viewer to unintentionally wonder if he will pop up again in the plot but this doesn't occur.
Bai Yan - The 2nd FL, BY is the childhood friend of GY and is a renown pianist. Returning home their families arrange the marriage of the two and she is over joyed. Her actions within the show have severe consequences and she is sent to prison just before the 2/3 mark. Both ML and FL refuse to forgive her to the very end but FL does accept her apology letter in last episode which may infuriate the viewer.
Su Juan - The catalyst for QJ seeking out GY originally is the mistaken thought he carried Su Juan's heart inside him. Overall most plot holes within the series have to due with this character. Again, more episodes could have allowed for him to develop further. He has a very minor arc with Bai Yan due to time restrictions on episode count that I wanted to see more of, especially in conflict with QJ. Because of the lack of time to develop scenes the viewer is sometimes left with doubt as to what his actual emotion is or if he is acting in a particular situation.
Fang Pei (GY mother) - Stereotyped and needed more time to truly showcase a change of heart, especially towards QJ. However, at the very least with this character the writers were able to find a way to express her true feelings during a scene with both GY and QJ mother's getting drunk together. Here we finally see that her opinions on the relationship haven't truly 100% changed, she just loves her son enough that she's given up fighting. Especially after the "other option" of BY is no longer socially or morally acceptable to her. In the penultimate scene of the series she tells her side of the events surrounding Su Juan and it will probably have you rolling your eyes in disbelief.
Zhou Yue - As a supporting character always by Gu Yi's side his relationships to and with everyone appear to almost be made deliberately vague. Bai Yan refers to him as her brother despite having differing last names and he refers to Bai mom as Auntie. His story development at the end of the last couple episodes makes for one of the least punished characters as his lawsuit had been dropped and Gu Yi is seen having a beer with him and calling him brother even as ZY is letting him know he's turning himself in. Honestly, he needed at least a minute or twos worth of time within the show to have focused more on his facial expressions. That or have switched the actor to someone more nuanced with microexpressions. Then maybe every thing would be slightly more believable from a viewers point of view.
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Sibling-bait Romance Meets Revenge Drama
What's more titillating than "normal" sibling bait but "twin" sibling bait drenched in blood and wrapped around a revenge setting.💀Negatives💀
• Important details needed for 2nd half are given too late
• Lack of angst when story has built the expectation
• Minor plot holes; but those that did show up were large
• Romance may feel uneven and turn some off (ML has more information than FL and utilizes this factor to get closer to her)
✅️Positives✅️
• Both Leads and 2nd Leads portrayed convincing emotional scenes (biased opinion that this director can make even a bad actor give the best performance of their life)
• Cinematography (another hallmark of this director) is stunning
• Romance is spicy and doesn't shy from being "almost" too much
• While there are many aspects that are predictable based on the genre, the show still provides MULTIPLE instances that defy the usual tropes
🔥Set-Up🔥
This drama is one that absolutely toes the line on taboo thoughts and fantasies. Multiple characters engage in possibly or absolutely immoral relationships.
We have the ML/FL set-up which is described in the synopsis. These two, despite being not blood related, grew up together as sibling twins from infancy. The FL is shown in a flashback to have been told the ML was adopted possibly around the age of ten (they don't say specifically) while it doesn't give a definite or generic time when the ML discovered the secret. Throughout the drama the ML refers to the FL on and off as A'Jie and there is a line near the end episodes in which he declares his intention to be the "elder brother" going forward and protect her.
Next, we have the relationship between the 2ML and 2FL (FL's husband and 'sister/cousin'). Based upon the FL marrying him, her female relatives become his female relatives and as such, having a relationship with her "brother-in-law" is the same as if it were her own brother.
This is also the case when the FL's aunt (specifically 伯母 bómǔ - father's elder brother's wife) is found to be in a relationship with her father in the beginning episodes. Just as before, the woman is the sister-in-law and as such she is his "sister". They are prohibited from having a rel or marrying and while they are again not blood relatives, the relationship would be deemed immortal.
🔥Revenge🔥
A significant portion of this drama focuses on the revenge of first the FL, then the ML. While the first portion is a bloody, edge-of-your-seat revenge drama that puts many others to shame, once her story is wrapped up, there is a section of... blandness. Romance, something which had been sprinkled in among the unhinged schemes, becomes the majority of the episodes and the viewer will either enjoy the switch or roll their eyes at yet ANOTHER scene of "making eyes".
When it comes time to make the same emotional scenes in the back half, the story hasn't laid out a foundation to make the audience care. Because of this, grand emotional scenes are watched with confusion asking the leads what the issue even IS that's causing the turbulence.
Is the audience eventually given the answers? Yes. But usually clues are doled out a little at a time and history (even if it's fake) is set up as a reason for later conflicts at an earlier stage than having the audience listen TO BOTH the true and false narratives at once.
Will the revelation put past scenes into perspective? Yes. But also, this doesn't change the feeling of frustration and lack of connection to the emotions that had already been played out on screen in those previous episodes.
👍Conclusion👍
The story, from a "nit-pick" stand-point could have been laid out better, but ultimately, it was interesting. There are definitely plot holes in the final episodes with questions left unanswered about the ML and eye-rolling thoughts about the Emperor that make him seem either VERY subtly evil or blissfully incompetent when it came to two seperate matters.
Ultimately this is a fun ride for people who enjoy lots of blood, over the top fights, and revenge themes while not minding a ML who makes doe eyes at the FL every 5 seconds and has a tendency to strip at the slightest provocative.
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