News 
Peonies flourish against the current
Superb acting, interesting story, very good costume/wig department. Overall the drama reminds me of Against The Current for its themes, cinematic captures and the feeling. Highly recommend watching it.
Story concentrates on women and their lives in men's world, that strengths can look like many different things and no, you don't need a man to save you from every little thing all the time. It's about relationships, solidarity, survival and mutual respect between women (and some men) while men play court intrigues, talk cryptic while hunting and uphold patriarchy like their lives depend on it. Bonus - the protagonists have real opposing forces against them and problems that are not solved within ten minutes of them showing up. The catch is not that the villains are hard to identify - they are in plain sight the whole time - but that greed and evil is as persistent and unrelenting as kindness and good.
Camera work and editing is very saturated, beautiful colours on sets. Almost feels like there is a little bit of a brown sepia filter on the camera. The shots are not necessarily dynamic or exciting, but setups are always beautiful. Songs used were pretty, but they didn't fit the mood for me every time.
The tone of the drama feels mature even though characters are young to begin with. There's a little bit of lightness with humour once in a while to dilute the almost oppressive levels of manipulation and human wickedness. It gets dark.
And yet again I see a problem with horses - a standing horse who's breathing so hard the person on top of them is vibrating, is either sedated with drugs, has been made to move a lot for a very long time to make it tired and calm or the weather is so hot it's hard to breathe. Either is harmful for the animal. Besides, they straight up kill a horse for jumping on someone. I'm not even going to get into that, but it did sour the mood for me. At least other animals looked quite happy and lively, so at least maybe no one was drugged to be on set.
The ending was so abrupt it gave me whiplash. But, as there are so many unfinished things, there has to be another season, which there is - hurray!
Story concentrates on women and their lives in men's world, that strengths can look like many different things and no, you don't need a man to save you from every little thing all the time. It's about relationships, solidarity, survival and mutual respect between women (and some men) while men play court intrigues, talk cryptic while hunting and uphold patriarchy like their lives depend on it. Bonus - the protagonists have real opposing forces against them and problems that are not solved within ten minutes of them showing up. The catch is not that the villains are hard to identify - they are in plain sight the whole time - but that greed and evil is as persistent and unrelenting as kindness and good.
Camera work and editing is very saturated, beautiful colours on sets. Almost feels like there is a little bit of a brown sepia filter on the camera. The shots are not necessarily dynamic or exciting, but setups are always beautiful. Songs used were pretty, but they didn't fit the mood for me every time.
The tone of the drama feels mature even though characters are young to begin with. There's a little bit of lightness with humour once in a while to dilute the almost oppressive levels of manipulation and human wickedness. It gets dark.
And yet again I see a problem with horses - a standing horse who's breathing so hard the person on top of them is vibrating, is either sedated with drugs, has been made to move a lot for a very long time to make it tired and calm or the weather is so hot it's hard to breathe. Either is harmful for the animal. Besides, they straight up kill a horse for jumping on someone. I'm not even going to get into that, but it did sour the mood for me. At least other animals looked quite happy and lively, so at least maybe no one was drugged to be on set.
The ending was so abrupt it gave me whiplash. But, as there are so many unfinished things, there has to be another season, which there is - hurray!
Was this review helpful to you?
