Almost great, but...
OVERALL
Amazing visuals, great music, good script, but terribly unbalanced. Watch it if you're looking for a logical and coherent love story and you're into political intrigue. If you're easily bored, you're into useful and important FLs, or you don't like tragedy, skip.
THE STORY
In theory, it is an enemies-to-lovers story. Male Lead (ML) and Female Lead (FL) come from different nations, and families with a real bad history, but they're forced to get married to protect the peace. Obviously, it does not go well... until it does. But really, it's not an enemies-to-lovers story, because typically, in these stories, both sides are petty with one another until love comes around, and that's not what this drama is about. FL is pretty much catering to the ML almost from the start and ML is the main one being petty. It's as if he's the only one suffering from the family feud and she doesn't have that baggage at all (which makes no sense). It doesn't last very long, but the next part (which lasts VERY long) is not much better: FL knows she likes ML and ML kind of knows he likes her but pretends he doesn't. The last quarter of the drama, the romance finally picks up, but by then 3/4 of the series is gone.
On the bright side, ML and FL are cute and have several nice, memorable scenes together. Even though most of the romance is very tame (PG-rated), there are 2-3 spicier scenes to shake things up. But I'm not satisfied. Do I feel like the 1st part, when ML is being petty, is bad? No, but I would have enjoyed it more if FL had been pettier. It would make the relationship feel more equal. She does mess things up for him a bit at the beginning, but not nearly as much as she could have. By the way, it feels very unusual to see a FL so subdued and effaced, when the trend these days is the opposite. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It felt like a waste to make FL smart and then let her be so...unimportant. Anyway, same thing with part 2. Do I feel like the 2nd part, when ML is in denial, is bad? No, it's necessary given his backstory, but it's WAY too long. We're stuck in this part for more than 10 episodes. More than 10 episodes of romance not progressing is a problem.
To be clear, I don't think the love story is all bad, it makes sense and the characters (especially ML and his resentment) make sense. It's just not well balanced. There's also an imbalance between the romance and the political intrigue in Prisoner of Beauty. Usually, if there is one, dramas don't spend enough time on the romance and too much time on politics, but here, it feels like the opposite. That wouldn't be a problem if the romance was very eventful and fast-paced, but when literally nothing new happens for episodes on end in the romance and there's also nothing of much importance happening in the political side, then we get... well, nothing. The political intrigue in this drama is very interesting though. In the last episodes, it reaches epic proportions. But it feels so rushed! Why wait until the very last 3 episodes to let the fun start?
Bottom line: Prisoner of Beauty has great sets and costumes and good cinematography. The love story, though a bit juvenile, is cute and coherent. Secondary characters (Yulou and the Wei cousin) have surprising depth (though it isn't utilized as much as it should have been), too. But overall, the drama just doesn't quite reach its amazing potential. It is, however, a HUGE improvement on the book, imo.
THE ACTING
Good enough for me. I think FL did a better job than ML, but I do like Liu Yuning and wish him the absolute best. They did have good chemistry too. I also want to praise the production for a diverse cast (not everybody is thin in this drama), which is a change. That was really nice.
THE MUSIC
Good stuff!
REWATCH VALUE
I will DEFINITELY rewatch this, but with some fast-forwarding.
Amazing visuals, great music, good script, but terribly unbalanced. Watch it if you're looking for a logical and coherent love story and you're into political intrigue. If you're easily bored, you're into useful and important FLs, or you don't like tragedy, skip.
THE STORY
In theory, it is an enemies-to-lovers story. Male Lead (ML) and Female Lead (FL) come from different nations, and families with a real bad history, but they're forced to get married to protect the peace. Obviously, it does not go well... until it does. But really, it's not an enemies-to-lovers story, because typically, in these stories, both sides are petty with one another until love comes around, and that's not what this drama is about. FL is pretty much catering to the ML almost from the start and ML is the main one being petty. It's as if he's the only one suffering from the family feud and she doesn't have that baggage at all (which makes no sense). It doesn't last very long, but the next part (which lasts VERY long) is not much better: FL knows she likes ML and ML kind of knows he likes her but pretends he doesn't. The last quarter of the drama, the romance finally picks up, but by then 3/4 of the series is gone.
On the bright side, ML and FL are cute and have several nice, memorable scenes together. Even though most of the romance is very tame (PG-rated), there are 2-3 spicier scenes to shake things up. But I'm not satisfied. Do I feel like the 1st part, when ML is being petty, is bad? No, but I would have enjoyed it more if FL had been pettier. It would make the relationship feel more equal. She does mess things up for him a bit at the beginning, but not nearly as much as she could have. By the way, it feels very unusual to see a FL so subdued and effaced, when the trend these days is the opposite. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It felt like a waste to make FL smart and then let her be so...unimportant. Anyway, same thing with part 2. Do I feel like the 2nd part, when ML is in denial, is bad? No, it's necessary given his backstory, but it's WAY too long. We're stuck in this part for more than 10 episodes. More than 10 episodes of romance not progressing is a problem.
To be clear, I don't think the love story is all bad, it makes sense and the characters (especially ML and his resentment) make sense. It's just not well balanced. There's also an imbalance between the romance and the political intrigue in Prisoner of Beauty. Usually, if there is one, dramas don't spend enough time on the romance and too much time on politics, but here, it feels like the opposite. That wouldn't be a problem if the romance was very eventful and fast-paced, but when literally nothing new happens for episodes on end in the romance and there's also nothing of much importance happening in the political side, then we get... well, nothing. The political intrigue in this drama is very interesting though. In the last episodes, it reaches epic proportions. But it feels so rushed! Why wait until the very last 3 episodes to let the fun start?
Bottom line: Prisoner of Beauty has great sets and costumes and good cinematography. The love story, though a bit juvenile, is cute and coherent. Secondary characters (Yulou and the Wei cousin) have surprising depth (though it isn't utilized as much as it should have been), too. But overall, the drama just doesn't quite reach its amazing potential. It is, however, a HUGE improvement on the book, imo.
THE ACTING
Good enough for me. I think FL did a better job than ML, but I do like Liu Yuning and wish him the absolute best. They did have good chemistry too. I also want to praise the production for a diverse cast (not everybody is thin in this drama), which is a change. That was really nice.
THE MUSIC
Good stuff!
REWATCH VALUE
I will DEFINITELY rewatch this, but with some fast-forwarding.
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