This is so good… like not even kidding… I was super surprised. The production team managed to level up and it’s actually comparable to American dramas in this genre. Very impressed.
Zhou Yi Wei and Zhang Zi Yi….. 😍 damn….. the way he looks at her…… he is really suited for this role……
Just finished reading the novel….. the TV series is much better but there could have been more tweaks here and there to “perfect” it since it deviates from the novel quite a bit. It maintained a lot of the main plots and even dialogues exchanged between characters but they defo changed a lot of the chronological details. Also a lot of dynamics between characters are also different. Even A Wu in the novel is quite different, I MUCH prefer her in TV series, I actually find her quite annoying in the novel (she is always either crying or fainting or both….. not even kidding, like a zillion times)
Zhou Yi Wei and Zhang Zi Yi….. 😍 damn….. the way he looks at her…… he is really suited for this role… and ZZY is just so mesmerising… I would look at her like that too if I had a wife like A Wu. 🤣
I also ❤️ Qin Lan; she is beautiful! 😻 The costumes and the other actresses are also breath-taking. Tbh,…
It is, to me she is defo very elegant; at the very least all the roles I’ve seen her play she has this unique elegance… and I’ve came to realise that is more important for women.
Yeassss, something I’ve learnt to watch and appreciate the past 5 yrs though my Chinese is only intermediate. Lol. Defo hope we bump into each other again on other message boards! ❤️
The ML and FL have put in too much work not to have not only a happy ending but they do not deserve to have a…
Not only chemistry, even the amount of physical contact is super natural and so rare for C-dramas. Like it literally gives butterflies in the stomach when they show their kissing scenes coz there is defo some lust + passion in them. Lol! So cute.
I also ❤️ Qin Lan; she is beautiful! 😻 The costumes and the other actresses are also breath-taking. Tbh,…
I don’t find her exceptionally beautiful because a lot of Mainland actresses also have similar features if not more striking… but I find her very attractive… it’s mostly her demeanour and the way she carries herself, the way she speaks. Yea, she totally could carry those bangs lol! Yea they totally managed to create like the Chinese equivalent of the Great Gatsby vibe with all the costumes and the set… esp the department store, it reminds me of Harrods in London. But the whole political aspects was a bit much… like not even kidding, I’m surprised I didn’t skip everything. Lol.
From a visual standpoint this is one of the best, if not the best, I've seen. The cinematography, effects, detail(people…
Agree but plot wise it was…… super duper uber convoluted….. to the extent that I think they overdid it and wonder if it was really necessary. Think it would have been better if they streamlined the complexity or perhaps it was the way the plot/drama unfolded… defo left me perplexed after 48 episodes until like maybe the last 30 mins; the last scene where the main antagonist literally had to explicitly summarise all his actions verbally.
Would have been MUCH better if viewers were given the opportunity to gradually discover the plot on their own as the drama progressed. This is generally one of the joys and satisfaction of watching series. Not so sure how I felt after the whole drama ended… there defo was a bit “?!?!?” kinda feeling. There were too many main/heavy plots (not to mention the smaller plots) happening simultaneously but didn’t quite come together nicely and naturally, somehow the way the story was told made it felt like everything was kinda random/spotty until the last 30 mins. I.e They could have used Li Bi and Zhao Xiao Jing’s analytical and detective skills to conduct analytical meetings earlier on and have multiple sessions throughout the series so that we gradually get closer to the truth instead of them just running around separately and when they got together it is just to update one another. In the end they had to use He Lao and some other random guy to decipher all the pieces…. and even that meeting was kinda random….
Defo left some angst after watching it. Lol. The screenwriter could defo take some pointers from Joy of Life though they aren’t the same genre. Or even 24, I watched 24 back then. Think one of the biggest difference is 24 didn’t have so many main plots going together at once and they limited the number of main/important characters… it seems like here they tried to make everyone important, which is defo overarching. Towards the end I can’t even tell A from B or C.
It’s on dramacool already but somehow it isn’t subbed… I watched it in Chinese. But I saw many comments below that mentioned it will be out on HBO GO in 2 days, I would think that is subbed.
Where did you watch it….. I’ve been trying to look for them…. Youku isn’t allowing me to watch them…..…
Yea… think youku literally just changed the whole preview viewing thing to members only…. Or at the very least you need to have an account…. Can’t read Chinese so I’m not entirely sure. Thanks anyways!
This series is superbly odd… cinematography is amazing, like beautiful colour palette though some prior posts…
I mean one of the ML being useless is fine as long as the character has depth and is multi-dimensional…. But not only was he useless, he was literally completely missing/absent for most of the series… so this series basically didn’t really have a ML… which is also fine but they were trying to highlight misogyny during older times…. The entire thing is very strange coz the 2nd ML and male antagonists ended up having a lot of screen time… and none of the villains were solid enough to carry the series. Can’t even remember their faces and their performance is really subpar… Just felt like the entire series was missing a centrepiece for the first 24 episodes… like there was no core to balance it…. It reminded me of the series Royal Feast which had somewhat similar issues but theirs started off great but ended up losing it as the drama progressed. This drama is chronologically opposite.
This series is superbly odd… cinematography is amazing, like beautiful colour palette though some prior posts rightly pointed out that it has been presented in other C-dramas before. But the whole plot and pacing is kinda odd, can’t exactly tell wot the exact issue is…. I think it’s the way the story was told prior to episode 25 and the time spent on certain parts of the plot was oddly weighted…. Also the story as a whole is a bit strange in the first half. I found it to be quite uneven and random in the earlier episodes, like logically it didn’t make much sense either (or you’d kinda be doubtful/wondering why it’s kinda random when you are watching it in the first half)
For example the storytelling became a lot more compelling and engaging after episode 24, they started using flashbacks that were relevant and they accumulated so much “missing” plots that it all got told like in the last 10 episodes of the series in various meaningful ways. They should have focused on embroidery industry more initially by building more plots around it but they ended up making a lot of other subplots which didn’t necessarily link together without touching much on embroidery/family business.
Would give it a 7.5 for the first 24 episodes and 8.5 from episode 25 onwards. My eyes were glued to the screen from episode 25 onwards….
The series surprisingly explores some deep yet less common topics (in C-dramas) like: 1. How men or perhaps humans in general get married for various reasons which result in the issue of Heart vs. Mind/Brain. I.e Love vs. Respect isn’t the same thing and people do want to have it all but more often than not it doesn’t exist in the same person and why people end up having affairs.. 2. How men are wired differently from women by nature, and they go through all sorts of complex feelings when women are more capable/successful than them career/work wise… things have improved in current times but the complexity is still present and it isn’t easy for women to balance everything. 3. An important message sent explicitly which is rare of how girl power or feminism isn’t meant to isolate women nor to necessarily be better than men but to actually find your own self worth on top of marriage, being a daughter, a wife or a mother. The ultimate goal is to have your own family, one which values you and respects you because you can hold your own.
When is this coming out….. Miss Zhou Yi Wei being on screen….. he is such an underrated actor, wished he had more works…. This looks really promising…. Can’t wait!
This is crazy good…. Like it’s so addictive. I couldn’t stop binge watching for the entire night.. my eyes hurt in the morning lol. My poor eyes.
I expected the whole China patriotism and Japanese war thing to turn me off….. I found it a bit much (regardless of whether it depicted actual history, I had no intentions of watching a documentary nor a war film) but I watched through most of it…..
Qin Lan is such an enchanting actress…. I just couldn’t stop watching the scenes with her in them…. So many heart-wrenching moments and also her plot with Nie Yuan…. Just overshadowed the one with Han Geng and Wu Jin Yan although they were also both great…
The other cast members also put on a great show, solid acting skills. I cried a lot…. And that has been rare when watching movies/series the past couple of years…
Watched this for the 2nd time… have to admit it is really good although the ML and FL are not the most physically striking/visually perfect people unlike some of the other artistes… but they do give off the right vibes for the role…
The plot, chemistry, backdrop, production quality etc…. Took me by surprise… It’s great in that sense… esp acting of the supporting cast…. Or even physical appearances of the supporting cast like clothes, hair, makeup, props etc….
The flow of the story and the screen time between the main leads are also pretty on point which has been proven difficult for many C-dramas… more often than not it is off balance and just weird/annoying…
Only one obvious flaw with the drama is they revealed the villain way too early…. And too randomly..
1 
24 
Yeassss, something I’ve learnt to watch and appreciate the past 5 yrs though my Chinese is only intermediate. Lol. Defo hope we bump into each other again on other message boards! ❤️
but I find her very attractive… it’s mostly her demeanour and the way she carries herself, the way she speaks. Yea, she totally could carry those bangs lol!
Yea they totally managed to create like the Chinese equivalent of the Great Gatsby vibe with all the costumes and the set… esp the department store, it reminds me of Harrods in London.
But the whole political aspects was a bit much… like not even kidding, I’m surprised I didn’t skip everything. Lol.
Would have been MUCH better if viewers were given the opportunity to gradually discover the plot on their own as the drama progressed. This is generally one of the joys and satisfaction of watching series.
Not so sure how I felt after the whole drama ended… there defo was a bit “?!?!?” kinda feeling. There were too many main/heavy plots (not to mention the smaller plots) happening simultaneously but didn’t quite come together nicely and naturally, somehow the way the story was told made it felt like everything was kinda random/spotty until the last 30 mins. I.e They could have used Li Bi and Zhao Xiao Jing’s analytical and detective skills to conduct analytical meetings earlier on and have multiple sessions throughout the series so that we gradually get closer to the truth instead of them just running around separately and when they got together it is just to update one another. In the end they had to use He Lao and some other random guy to decipher all the pieces…. and even that meeting was kinda random….
Defo left some angst after watching it. Lol. The screenwriter could defo take some pointers from Joy of Life though they aren’t the same genre. Or even 24, I watched 24 back then. Think one of the biggest difference is 24 didn’t have so many main plots going together at once and they limited the number of main/important characters… it seems like here they tried to make everyone important, which is defo overarching. Towards the end I can’t even tell A from B or C.
Just felt like the entire series was missing a centrepiece for the first 24 episodes… like there was no core to balance it…. It reminded me of the series Royal Feast which had somewhat similar issues but theirs started off great but ended up losing it as the drama progressed. This drama is chronologically opposite.
But the whole plot and pacing is kinda odd, can’t exactly tell wot the exact issue is…. I think it’s the way the story was told prior to episode 25 and the time spent on certain parts of the plot was oddly weighted…. Also the story as a whole is a bit strange in the first half. I found it to be quite uneven and random in the earlier episodes, like logically it didn’t make much sense either (or you’d kinda be doubtful/wondering why it’s kinda random when you are watching it in the first half)
For example the storytelling became a lot more compelling and engaging after episode 24, they started using flashbacks that were relevant and they accumulated so much “missing” plots that it all got told like in the last 10 episodes of the series in various meaningful ways. They should have focused on embroidery industry more initially by building more plots around it but they ended up making a lot of other subplots which didn’t necessarily link together without touching much on embroidery/family business.
Would give it a 7.5 for the first 24 episodes and 8.5 from episode 25 onwards. My eyes were glued to the screen from episode 25 onwards….
The series surprisingly explores some deep yet less common topics (in C-dramas) like:
1. How men or perhaps humans in general get married for various reasons which result in the issue of Heart vs. Mind/Brain. I.e Love vs. Respect isn’t the same thing and people do want to have it all but more often than not it doesn’t exist in the same person and why people end up having affairs..
2. How men are wired differently from women by nature, and they go through all sorts of complex feelings when women are more capable/successful than them career/work wise… things have improved in current times but the complexity is still present and it isn’t easy for women to balance everything.
3. An important message sent explicitly which is rare of how girl power or feminism isn’t meant to isolate women nor to necessarily be better than men but to actually find your own self worth on top of marriage, being a daughter, a wife or a mother. The ultimate goal is to have your own family, one which values you and respects you because you can hold your own.
I expected the whole China patriotism and Japanese war thing to turn me off….. I found it a bit much (regardless of whether it depicted actual history, I had no intentions of watching a documentary nor a war film) but I watched through most of it…..
Qin Lan is such an enchanting actress…. I just couldn’t stop watching the scenes with her in them…. So many heart-wrenching moments and also her plot with Nie Yuan…. Just overshadowed the one with Han Geng and Wu Jin Yan although they were also both great…
The other cast members also put on a great show, solid acting skills. I cried a lot…. And that has been rare when watching movies/series the past couple of years…
The plot, chemistry, backdrop, production quality etc…. Took me by surprise… It’s great in that sense… esp acting of the supporting cast…. Or even physical appearances of the supporting cast like clothes, hair, makeup, props etc….
The flow of the story and the screen time between the main leads are also pretty on point which has been proven difficult for many C-dramas… more often than not it is off balance and just weird/annoying…
Only one obvious flaw with the drama is they revealed the villain way too early…. And too randomly..