Beautiful production and a great history lesson, but I wish I liked the plot more
The first thing I noticed about this show is the magnificent landscapes. Spanning all different types of settings, they are gorgeous, impressive, and noticeably real. On-site shooting makes a difference; CGI just doesn’t look this good.
This show must have spent so much money. Not only did they travel all over to film, but the amount of attention and effort paid to costumes, sets, music (eg regional folk songs), etc is astounding. I saw a BTS that explains how each setting has its own color palette; it creates a lovely, artistic feel. Even something like the horses- they are all real, there are a lot of them, and the actors all ride themselves. Such details add up to really immerse the viewer in the world of the show.
This is also clearly a show in which history and historical accuracy matter. Set in the Qing Dynasty towards the end of the Taiping Rebellion, when Westerners are starting to gain power, the story takes us through a tumultuous period of China’s recent past. Some historical figures show up, and big events are referred to, but mostly it’s a story of citizens trying to live their lives. Whether you already know the history or are just learning about it, its skillful integration in the story lets you appreciate the historical context without getting bogged down.
The historical context and amazing production are my favorite parts of this show. I wish I could like the story and characters as much, but something didn’t quite do it for me.
At its core, this is the story of how one very smart person smooth-talks and schemes his way out of countless hopeless predicaments and into various astounding successes. “Scheme” is perhaps too strong a word- he’s a good guy who pretty much always does the right thing. This makes it easy to root for him, although I didn’t feel I was rooting for him so much as sitting back and watching him work miracles.
Gu Pingyuan’s ventures are mostly in the world of business, though it’s not his original career path. Having no experience is not a problem, however, as his brilliant ideas and sturdy plot armor help him win repeatedly against much stronger opponents. He demonstrates impressive expertise in economics, banking, politics, law, and more, all of which I suppose he figured out just by thinking a little.
The show doesn’t even pretend to add an element of suspense about whether or not he’ll succeed. Plot armor aside, he’s always so confident that it’s hard to imagine him failing. And I certainly couldn’t independently critique his plans- I rarely understood them to begin with. It’s more about watching and appreciating his brilliant ideas. Seeing an underdog succeed against an unscrupulous and overpowered bully is always fun, and it certainly kept me happy and entertained for awhile.
Still, while I liked Gu Pingyuan and enjoyed watching him succeed, I didn’t really connect with him. He does have some setbacks, but they didn’t hit me that hard. Perhaps he is missing just a touch of humanity that would make me empathize with him more.
We also nominally have a female lead in Chang Yu’er. It took a few episodes for her to grow on me- Lovestruck is one of my least favorite kinds of FL- but as I was finally starting to like her, she disappears from the story. By the time she came back, I no longer cared.
Chang Yu’er is not bad, she’s just not well-developed enough for me to care about her. She’s about as important as any side character. I think she is supposed to have some martial arts ability, but due to lack of proper and consistent development, her occasionally swooping in to save the day feels more random than anything else. I can see how people would like her; I just wasn’t particularly impressed.
Not surprisingly, I wasn’t too into their romance either. But it’s also only one part of Gu Pingyuan’s story. Getting married is an important milestone in his life, and it makes sense that he finds a supportive, loving, and perfectly nice wife. Their relationship develops but is not played up as some epic thing; for better or worse, it’s much more grounded and realistic than the usual drama.
There is, however, a secondary romance that I found much more captivating. I definitely had a thing for General Li. He’s not quite the prettiest face (sorry dude), but between his calm, natural-leader personality and some excellent acting that brought it all to life, I was swooning over him more than Gu Pingyuan. Unfortunately though, he is just a side character, relevant to a story arc or two and that’s it.
As for other side characters, friend and rival Li Qin is quite likable. The way he tries to hang onto his friendship with Gu Pingyuan despite circumstances is very endearing. Li Qin is not as incredible as Gu Pingyuan, which means he loses sometimes and struggles with different emotions, and perhaps that’s why I found him a lot more relatable. But I also worried about him.
And then we have Miss Su. Sharp, capable, and deadly, she is an intriguing character, right up until her character assassination in the last 10 episodes or so. After that, she is weirdly reduced to randomly popping by to make things happen. Her character’s story is not the only one that’s dropped, but it’s the most egregious. This is a point where the writers really dropped the ball.
The plot consists of various story arcs as Gu Pingyuan moves through different ventures. I found it mostly not too stressful, due to his aforementioned confidence and general infallibility. I did worry about things like the fate of the rebel army and his friendship with Li Qin, but they are irrelevant for blocks at a time. There are also sprinkles of humor throughout, just little things that make you laugh. Overall it is not too stressful or angsty until the end, though there is one part in the middle where I also cried.
The pace for the most part is... atmospheric and artistic. Events happen in decent time- in fact, Gu Pingyuan seems to constantly be jumping from hot spot to hot spot (at some point I realized the show spans years, it's just that the passage of time is not well conveyed). But the scenes themselves are drawn out with pauses, theatrically delivered lines, etc. It’s good acting, but kind of slow if you just want to know what happens next.
Unfortunately, entering into the last third or so of the show, I found myself losing interest. Watching Gu Pingyuan’s nth success starts to get old. Perhaps if I’d connected more with his character, I would at least feel some emotional attachment to keep me invested, but instead it felt a little draggy. I was mildly interested in the late-stage grand reveal of his past, but not too happy with the way things play out afterwards. I found it believable enough, just too upsetting and angsty. It is kind of cool how the final story arc (Gu Pingyuan’s final battle in this battlefield of business) brings together many pieces of earlier arcs, but I had checked out by then.
Acting-wise, the acting in this show is exceptionally good. I wasn’t a huge fan of Chen Xiao in another show, but I thought he did a fantastic job here, showing subtle and complicated emotions through his expressions. The supporting cast also did a fantastic job.
As mentioned before, the production is exceptional. This however makes the occasional sloppiness somewhat jarring. For example, the battle scene in the grasslands looks a bit off, like they tried to fit in too many artistic portrayals of a battlefield. Bai Yimei’s prayers to Buddha don’t sound that Buddhist to me, more Christian style (but surely they wouldn’t mess this up, right?) And while the Westerners’ English is unusually fluent for a Cdrama, the accents are wrong (eg not British). Minor details, but I expect more when most of it is so good.
The background music is quite nice with some excellent string solos, and is used well to set the mood. The songs aren’t used that often, but sound nice. It’s overall not my personal favorite music, but not bad and used well.
Overall, I really wish I liked this show. It has an epic feel, with such beautiful production. Still, the more it went on, the more I found myself constantly “taking breaks” to watch other shows, which is the biggest sign that it didn’t quite captivate.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
I consider this a happy ending. The last few episodes are angsty, but Gu Pingyuan eventually makes it out and returns to his family and hometown to live in peace.
Li Qin fulfills audience fears by turning against Gu Pingyuan, but he does make it through and they are ok-ish by the end. It bothered me a little that they never fully talk things out, but I guess that is also realistic.
At the very end there is a quick scene of Gu Pingyuan with silver-streaked hair, some 40 years later, sending money to support the latest revolution. It lowkey gave me an existential crisis (a legend’s life just flashing by in an instant, fizzled to some mundane existence) but is a kind of nice tie-up that brings the show back to its historical context.
MORE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
I felt very sorry for Li Qin in the last few episodes. He's suddenly left with no support and no way down, and it’s no wonder that he turns to the dark side. I hoped Gu Pingyuan would save the day as usual, but unfortunately he takes this moment to finally be a normal human who doesn’t always do the perfect thing. Gu Pingyuan’s reactions to the momentous developments near the end are definitely not the most gracious, but they are totally understandable and more realistic than a more saintly response.
The way all of it play out feels a little manufactured, purposely blowing up the rivalry between Li Qin and Gu Pingyuan into a final, climactic showdown with grand consequences. Forcing the plot in this direction feels a bit like predictable, artificial drama-building. But, in fairness, it’s well-executed and believable enough. So while I’m tempted to write it off as bad scriptwriting, my biggest problem is that I simply didn’t like this turn of events in which a character I like becomes the antagonist.
I couldn’t blame Li Qin for the final arc, so where to redirect the anger? Li Wantang is partly to blame, and he definitely did wrong things, but I also sympathized somewhat with his situation past and present. The fat man is pretty hateful but he does let Gu Pingyuan go at the end. Overall there is no satisfaction of having an enemy who is defeated; it’s more like, we all crawl out of the mess and take what scraps we have left. Still, to find some peace after it all is not a bad ending.
This show must have spent so much money. Not only did they travel all over to film, but the amount of attention and effort paid to costumes, sets, music (eg regional folk songs), etc is astounding. I saw a BTS that explains how each setting has its own color palette; it creates a lovely, artistic feel. Even something like the horses- they are all real, there are a lot of them, and the actors all ride themselves. Such details add up to really immerse the viewer in the world of the show.
This is also clearly a show in which history and historical accuracy matter. Set in the Qing Dynasty towards the end of the Taiping Rebellion, when Westerners are starting to gain power, the story takes us through a tumultuous period of China’s recent past. Some historical figures show up, and big events are referred to, but mostly it’s a story of citizens trying to live their lives. Whether you already know the history or are just learning about it, its skillful integration in the story lets you appreciate the historical context without getting bogged down.
The historical context and amazing production are my favorite parts of this show. I wish I could like the story and characters as much, but something didn’t quite do it for me.
At its core, this is the story of how one very smart person smooth-talks and schemes his way out of countless hopeless predicaments and into various astounding successes. “Scheme” is perhaps too strong a word- he’s a good guy who pretty much always does the right thing. This makes it easy to root for him, although I didn’t feel I was rooting for him so much as sitting back and watching him work miracles.
Gu Pingyuan’s ventures are mostly in the world of business, though it’s not his original career path. Having no experience is not a problem, however, as his brilliant ideas and sturdy plot armor help him win repeatedly against much stronger opponents. He demonstrates impressive expertise in economics, banking, politics, law, and more, all of which I suppose he figured out just by thinking a little.
The show doesn’t even pretend to add an element of suspense about whether or not he’ll succeed. Plot armor aside, he’s always so confident that it’s hard to imagine him failing. And I certainly couldn’t independently critique his plans- I rarely understood them to begin with. It’s more about watching and appreciating his brilliant ideas. Seeing an underdog succeed against an unscrupulous and overpowered bully is always fun, and it certainly kept me happy and entertained for awhile.
Still, while I liked Gu Pingyuan and enjoyed watching him succeed, I didn’t really connect with him. He does have some setbacks, but they didn’t hit me that hard. Perhaps he is missing just a touch of humanity that would make me empathize with him more.
We also nominally have a female lead in Chang Yu’er. It took a few episodes for her to grow on me- Lovestruck is one of my least favorite kinds of FL- but as I was finally starting to like her, she disappears from the story. By the time she came back, I no longer cared.
Chang Yu’er is not bad, she’s just not well-developed enough for me to care about her. She’s about as important as any side character. I think she is supposed to have some martial arts ability, but due to lack of proper and consistent development, her occasionally swooping in to save the day feels more random than anything else. I can see how people would like her; I just wasn’t particularly impressed.
Not surprisingly, I wasn’t too into their romance either. But it’s also only one part of Gu Pingyuan’s story. Getting married is an important milestone in his life, and it makes sense that he finds a supportive, loving, and perfectly nice wife. Their relationship develops but is not played up as some epic thing; for better or worse, it’s much more grounded and realistic than the usual drama.
There is, however, a secondary romance that I found much more captivating. I definitely had a thing for General Li. He’s not quite the prettiest face (sorry dude), but between his calm, natural-leader personality and some excellent acting that brought it all to life, I was swooning over him more than Gu Pingyuan. Unfortunately though, he is just a side character, relevant to a story arc or two and that’s it.
As for other side characters, friend and rival Li Qin is quite likable. The way he tries to hang onto his friendship with Gu Pingyuan despite circumstances is very endearing. Li Qin is not as incredible as Gu Pingyuan, which means he loses sometimes and struggles with different emotions, and perhaps that’s why I found him a lot more relatable. But I also worried about him.
And then we have Miss Su. Sharp, capable, and deadly, she is an intriguing character, right up until her character assassination in the last 10 episodes or so. After that, she is weirdly reduced to randomly popping by to make things happen. Her character’s story is not the only one that’s dropped, but it’s the most egregious. This is a point where the writers really dropped the ball.
The plot consists of various story arcs as Gu Pingyuan moves through different ventures. I found it mostly not too stressful, due to his aforementioned confidence and general infallibility. I did worry about things like the fate of the rebel army and his friendship with Li Qin, but they are irrelevant for blocks at a time. There are also sprinkles of humor throughout, just little things that make you laugh. Overall it is not too stressful or angsty until the end, though there is one part in the middle where I also cried.
The pace for the most part is... atmospheric and artistic. Events happen in decent time- in fact, Gu Pingyuan seems to constantly be jumping from hot spot to hot spot (at some point I realized the show spans years, it's just that the passage of time is not well conveyed). But the scenes themselves are drawn out with pauses, theatrically delivered lines, etc. It’s good acting, but kind of slow if you just want to know what happens next.
Unfortunately, entering into the last third or so of the show, I found myself losing interest. Watching Gu Pingyuan’s nth success starts to get old. Perhaps if I’d connected more with his character, I would at least feel some emotional attachment to keep me invested, but instead it felt a little draggy. I was mildly interested in the late-stage grand reveal of his past, but not too happy with the way things play out afterwards. I found it believable enough, just too upsetting and angsty. It is kind of cool how the final story arc (Gu Pingyuan’s final battle in this battlefield of business) brings together many pieces of earlier arcs, but I had checked out by then.
Acting-wise, the acting in this show is exceptionally good. I wasn’t a huge fan of Chen Xiao in another show, but I thought he did a fantastic job here, showing subtle and complicated emotions through his expressions. The supporting cast also did a fantastic job.
As mentioned before, the production is exceptional. This however makes the occasional sloppiness somewhat jarring. For example, the battle scene in the grasslands looks a bit off, like they tried to fit in too many artistic portrayals of a battlefield. Bai Yimei’s prayers to Buddha don’t sound that Buddhist to me, more Christian style (but surely they wouldn’t mess this up, right?) And while the Westerners’ English is unusually fluent for a Cdrama, the accents are wrong (eg not British). Minor details, but I expect more when most of it is so good.
The background music is quite nice with some excellent string solos, and is used well to set the mood. The songs aren’t used that often, but sound nice. It’s overall not my personal favorite music, but not bad and used well.
Overall, I really wish I liked this show. It has an epic feel, with such beautiful production. Still, the more it went on, the more I found myself constantly “taking breaks” to watch other shows, which is the biggest sign that it didn’t quite captivate.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
I consider this a happy ending. The last few episodes are angsty, but Gu Pingyuan eventually makes it out and returns to his family and hometown to live in peace.
Li Qin fulfills audience fears by turning against Gu Pingyuan, but he does make it through and they are ok-ish by the end. It bothered me a little that they never fully talk things out, but I guess that is also realistic.
At the very end there is a quick scene of Gu Pingyuan with silver-streaked hair, some 40 years later, sending money to support the latest revolution. It lowkey gave me an existential crisis (a legend’s life just flashing by in an instant, fizzled to some mundane existence) but is a kind of nice tie-up that brings the show back to its historical context.
MORE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
I felt very sorry for Li Qin in the last few episodes. He's suddenly left with no support and no way down, and it’s no wonder that he turns to the dark side. I hoped Gu Pingyuan would save the day as usual, but unfortunately he takes this moment to finally be a normal human who doesn’t always do the perfect thing. Gu Pingyuan’s reactions to the momentous developments near the end are definitely not the most gracious, but they are totally understandable and more realistic than a more saintly response.
The way all of it play out feels a little manufactured, purposely blowing up the rivalry between Li Qin and Gu Pingyuan into a final, climactic showdown with grand consequences. Forcing the plot in this direction feels a bit like predictable, artificial drama-building. But, in fairness, it’s well-executed and believable enough. So while I’m tempted to write it off as bad scriptwriting, my biggest problem is that I simply didn’t like this turn of events in which a character I like becomes the antagonist.
I couldn’t blame Li Qin for the final arc, so where to redirect the anger? Li Wantang is partly to blame, and he definitely did wrong things, but I also sympathized somewhat with his situation past and present. The fat man is pretty hateful but he does let Gu Pingyuan go at the end. Overall there is no satisfaction of having an enemy who is defeated; it’s more like, we all crawl out of the mess and take what scraps we have left. Still, to find some peace after it all is not a bad ending.
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