This review may contain spoilers
I had hoped for something along the lines of The Story of Kunning Palace but was sadly disappointed
**This is just my opinion. I truly appreciate all of the hard work that went into the making of this drama. Thank you.**
I should preface this review by stating that I'm not a big fan of palace intrigue, politics or watching people obsess about how to dominate someone else. This drama seems to be almost entirely focused on that or revenge. There is a little bit of romance sprinkled in but very little of the healthy variety.
**Spoiler Alert**
Not one, not two, but three people somehow get a second chance to start over as their younger selves when they die at the same time. We know about two of them from the drama's description. The third, that I won't reveal, comes as a surprise. We aren't told how or why they are able to come back and have another chance, we just see the Princess and Pei Wen Xuan trying to guess what happened and how that person came to be there as well. Personally, I found this incredibly vexing. I wanted some kind of explanation as to why the three of them would all be back in their younger bodies with their memories intact.
The female lead character is arrogant, cold, entitled, selfish and while she does have the desire to do the right thing, she lacks the ability to empathize with other people and understand what they're feeling and really need. Because of that, she's unable to let her guard down and trust anyone. Not because she doesn't want to, she just can't. Nevertheless, it makes it really hard to understand why both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing would literally do anything for her. She does so many disrespectful, cruel things that I don't know how they can forgive her them.
While both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing are attractive, intelligent and devoted in their own ways, neither of them seem to have any self respect when it comes to doing whatever it takes to have the Princess. She might have wanted them more and behaved better if they stopped taking whatever she doled out to them. I was offended on behalf of them, just watching it. Yes, I know Li Rong did come around and start treating them better later on, but not well enough, in my opinion. Li Rong was also never clear about who she cared about. She should have made it clear to both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing early on. It would have saved them all a lot of heart ache. It wasn't fair to have them have to live with that doubt /hope still lingering.
I found the first half of the drama really boring and I struggled to get through it. The second half picked up though and I was interested to see where it would go, especially if they would reveal any of the answers I was looking for. The cast is good and I enjoyed the acting. I was disappointed with how they decided to do the action scenes though. There wasn't any realism. They went for the fake, Wuxia feel even though it wasn't a fantasy in any way other than the going back in time bit. People fall off tall cliffs and only get bruises, stabbed in the chest or back and it might as well have just been a scratch. Seriously, what were they thinking? And then of course there's the fact that people just order others to be killed at the drop of the hat and we're still supposed to sympathize with their characters. How exactly? They're murderers. In the end, the character that I liked the most was Su Rong Qing's elder brother, Su Rong Hua, played by Yi Da Qian. He was sweet, kind, stuck to his convictions and was self sacrificing.
My favorite thing about this drama would be the soundtrack. I absolutely love the song "Devoted Love" by Mika and keep listening to it on repeat, even though I don't speak Chinese. It's just beautiful. There are some other really good songs on it as well. They're well worth checking out.
Over all, the acting was really good but I didn't like the characters or story very much. I don't like arrogant, entitled women or men who suck up and take abuse. If you do, then you'll love this one.
I should preface this review by stating that I'm not a big fan of palace intrigue, politics or watching people obsess about how to dominate someone else. This drama seems to be almost entirely focused on that or revenge. There is a little bit of romance sprinkled in but very little of the healthy variety.
**Spoiler Alert**
Not one, not two, but three people somehow get a second chance to start over as their younger selves when they die at the same time. We know about two of them from the drama's description. The third, that I won't reveal, comes as a surprise. We aren't told how or why they are able to come back and have another chance, we just see the Princess and Pei Wen Xuan trying to guess what happened and how that person came to be there as well. Personally, I found this incredibly vexing. I wanted some kind of explanation as to why the three of them would all be back in their younger bodies with their memories intact.
The female lead character is arrogant, cold, entitled, selfish and while she does have the desire to do the right thing, she lacks the ability to empathize with other people and understand what they're feeling and really need. Because of that, she's unable to let her guard down and trust anyone. Not because she doesn't want to, she just can't. Nevertheless, it makes it really hard to understand why both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing would literally do anything for her. She does so many disrespectful, cruel things that I don't know how they can forgive her them.
While both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing are attractive, intelligent and devoted in their own ways, neither of them seem to have any self respect when it comes to doing whatever it takes to have the Princess. She might have wanted them more and behaved better if they stopped taking whatever she doled out to them. I was offended on behalf of them, just watching it. Yes, I know Li Rong did come around and start treating them better later on, but not well enough, in my opinion. Li Rong was also never clear about who she cared about. She should have made it clear to both Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing early on. It would have saved them all a lot of heart ache. It wasn't fair to have them have to live with that doubt /hope still lingering.
I found the first half of the drama really boring and I struggled to get through it. The second half picked up though and I was interested to see where it would go, especially if they would reveal any of the answers I was looking for. The cast is good and I enjoyed the acting. I was disappointed with how they decided to do the action scenes though. There wasn't any realism. They went for the fake, Wuxia feel even though it wasn't a fantasy in any way other than the going back in time bit. People fall off tall cliffs and only get bruises, stabbed in the chest or back and it might as well have just been a scratch. Seriously, what were they thinking? And then of course there's the fact that people just order others to be killed at the drop of the hat and we're still supposed to sympathize with their characters. How exactly? They're murderers. In the end, the character that I liked the most was Su Rong Qing's elder brother, Su Rong Hua, played by Yi Da Qian. He was sweet, kind, stuck to his convictions and was self sacrificing.
My favorite thing about this drama would be the soundtrack. I absolutely love the song "Devoted Love" by Mika and keep listening to it on repeat, even though I don't speak Chinese. It's just beautiful. There are some other really good songs on it as well. They're well worth checking out.
Over all, the acting was really good but I didn't like the characters or story very much. I don't like arrogant, entitled women or men who suck up and take abuse. If you do, then you'll love this one.
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