Anoif

I’ve watched this for the n-th time…. it surprisingly is still perfect… didn’t think it was like a 10 when I watched it the first time but….. after the repeated rewatches… it’s really superbly close to perfect.

The emperor…. The actor who plays the emperor, his performance calls for a standing ovation… #notevenkidding. All the artiste even minor roles are amazing… and everything is so logical, even sub-plots… that is so rare….

Vengo Gao is super charming here…. Gosh his chemistry with Ma Yili is off the charts… they are so sexy tog! Love this series loads, for once the ending isn’t rushed and they wrapped it up nicely… unlike a lot of the other C-dramas.

Yea. Could be that because I just watched a scene in today’s episode and they showed a quick glimpse of a heart via the reflection of her glasses… and it look very real/high budget kinda production.
The censorship is weird then, because I think medical knowledge is beneficial for everyone… and seeing is learning…

Totally agree, think a lot of the feminism now is slightly misguided… most people esp a lot of females are like trying to be independent which is great but feminism doesn’t mean you should survive without a guy and only depend on yourself.
No gender is better than the other but both exist for different reasons and have different strengths and weaknesses. Hence they should not be striving the out-do men or replace them. It is more of both genders should have equal rights to excel in society and also to fall in love or make mistakes.

Totally agree, in that sense it was very poorly done…. American dramas are the gold standard then K-dramas for sure. I literally can’t see any of the patient’s organs.

Lol. I think it’s natural, it’s just repeated. It’s basically the repeated modern version of her character in Yanxi Palace. It’s nearly identical, just with a different backdrop/setting.

It ended… I’m so sad. Still think the ending is slightly rushed, could have done well with at least another 15-20 mins or so to wrap up all the various characters properly. Feels like something is missing, probably due to the editing. I.e wot happened to Zhong Xiu’s mother……
Actually the romantic relationships of the 3 sisters are pretty unique and all very cute in their own way, also kinda believable. Wonder if they modelled the characters based off Soong sisters albeit the different political views.
Wish there were more series like that, like the whole running a posh departmental store combined with a few other genres is very refreshing.. I can’t think of any other series which is similar ….

Seriously… the first case was really good… totally agree. Caught me by surprise

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.

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. 🤣

Yeassss!!!

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! ❤️

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 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.

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.

Couldn’t agree more… and episode 8’s ending is super exciting. Shitz, wished I binge watched this….. really can’t wait for wot happens next.

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.

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!

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.