K-Drama 
This review may contain spoilers
Beautiful and bittersweet
One thing you should pay attention to, though this IS a romance genre, romance isn't actually its main theme. It's main theme is Lanxiang's (LX) fall from nobility to rags, her rise back, and how she always truly lived for one thing alone: herself and the Shen family. And really... well, feminism (girl power!). If you go with this mindset, you won't feel a little annoyed from time to time like I did as I expected more romance and angst from the description and the trailers.
Master Lin is swoon worthy and he has his real flaws which actually added to his charm. But as we saw, LX didn't really care all that much. Fengtai (FT) was definitely the one who was more in love in their relationship, and LX, to me, felt more like "Oh, well, okay, i guess he's my hubby and the father of my children lol. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do", kind of the same way she was about to marry Han, no real feelings, just going with the motions sort of thing. She never really put a sweat in for their "love", like how both sides MUST do in a good love story. And though I don't hate it (I quite like that the man loves the woman more), its one of the little nitpicks I had with this otherwise great drama. I only wished for LX to have loved FT a bit more. Especially in the ending before her death, she still only held and remembered her Shen family with basically zero connection to FT. Which I understand. The tragedy of her family was truly not something one can overcome easily, if at all. But if alongside the Shen family sachet she also would have held the red string or anything connected to FT, it would have felt more satisfying for this drama as a ROMANCE genre. The current ending is perfect for a historical life drama, but slightly lacking for a romance.
My other nitpick: time skips.... Good God! I lost count just how many time skips we had. and some of them happened in such quick successions, e.g. something happened, and then 6 MONTHS LATER, then we get a scene that lasts maybe 5 or 10 mins and then suddenly we get hit with a 2 YEARS LATER! Like I'm not even grounded in the current timeline and we're already skipping. I know the story is a lifetime story and they don't have enough time, but not every scene needed to be directly added to add context for what happened in the past 2 years.
Other than that:
Acting? Amazing.
Story? Bittersweet and heartbreaking yet beautiful.
Characters? I actually LOVED that both FT and LX had goals of their own, especially FT. We already established LX is the nonchalant queen, but FT, even though he really loved LX he didn't just throw everything away just to follow her around like a sick puppy and forget everything else. He kept his goals, his ambitions, his very personality. He had red flags that remained, he had goals that he strived for even if it meant he kinda had to force LX to follow him, and then as he grew as a character and as a husband, his goals naturally changed. The more unbending person here was actually LX, and honestly good for her. It is refreshing for a woman to not give up on her dreams because of a man (We just needed a wee bit more feelings for your poor hubby LX!).
One thing I ABSOLUTELY LOVED and it had me kicking my feet like a schoolgirl and giggling is the slow burn of FT noticing then falling for LX, from the glances, to the subtle touches, to the lowered flirtatious voice, to standing closer to her than needed ..... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, genuinely had me smiling ear to ear.
One final warning and SPOILERS... we barely get any kisses. And the only one we get that actually counts is way over the halfway point xD Gotta love me my slow burn ಥ‿ಥ
Final verdict: 8.5/10 . Very good!
Emz Recommends
Master Lin is swoon worthy and he has his real flaws which actually added to his charm. But as we saw, LX didn't really care all that much. Fengtai (FT) was definitely the one who was more in love in their relationship, and LX, to me, felt more like "Oh, well, okay, i guess he's my hubby and the father of my children lol. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do", kind of the same way she was about to marry Han, no real feelings, just going with the motions sort of thing. She never really put a sweat in for their "love", like how both sides MUST do in a good love story. And though I don't hate it (I quite like that the man loves the woman more), its one of the little nitpicks I had with this otherwise great drama. I only wished for LX to have loved FT a bit more. Especially in the ending before her death, she still only held and remembered her Shen family with basically zero connection to FT. Which I understand. The tragedy of her family was truly not something one can overcome easily, if at all. But if alongside the Shen family sachet she also would have held the red string or anything connected to FT, it would have felt more satisfying for this drama as a ROMANCE genre. The current ending is perfect for a historical life drama, but slightly lacking for a romance.
My other nitpick: time skips.... Good God! I lost count just how many time skips we had. and some of them happened in such quick successions, e.g. something happened, and then 6 MONTHS LATER, then we get a scene that lasts maybe 5 or 10 mins and then suddenly we get hit with a 2 YEARS LATER! Like I'm not even grounded in the current timeline and we're already skipping. I know the story is a lifetime story and they don't have enough time, but not every scene needed to be directly added to add context for what happened in the past 2 years.
Other than that:
Acting? Amazing.
Story? Bittersweet and heartbreaking yet beautiful.
Characters? I actually LOVED that both FT and LX had goals of their own, especially FT. We already established LX is the nonchalant queen, but FT, even though he really loved LX he didn't just throw everything away just to follow her around like a sick puppy and forget everything else. He kept his goals, his ambitions, his very personality. He had red flags that remained, he had goals that he strived for even if it meant he kinda had to force LX to follow him, and then as he grew as a character and as a husband, his goals naturally changed. The more unbending person here was actually LX, and honestly good for her. It is refreshing for a woman to not give up on her dreams because of a man (We just needed a wee bit more feelings for your poor hubby LX!).
One thing I ABSOLUTELY LOVED and it had me kicking my feet like a schoolgirl and giggling is the slow burn of FT noticing then falling for LX, from the glances, to the subtle touches, to the lowered flirtatious voice, to standing closer to her than needed ..... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, genuinely had me smiling ear to ear.
One final warning and SPOILERS... we barely get any kisses. And the only one we get that actually counts is way over the halfway point xD Gotta love me my slow burn ಥ‿ಥ
Final verdict: 8.5/10 . Very good!
Emz Recommends
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