Juelin

Good acting and production overshadowed by a messy plot

This show had tremendous potential. The premise was very interesting and seemed to be a coming of age/revenge story of a young man's personal growth. Unfortunately, that wasn't the actual plot. I don't know what the plot was.

The romance was ok. It only took Jiusi and Yuru 28 episodes to kiss and consummate their marriage. Other than that, they had affectionate and cute interactions with almost no sexual chemistry. But, when they kissed, they made out on screen and it was hot. This makes me totally confused about the logic behind Chinese censorship.

The revenge plot was a big deal at the beginning. But, then it completely fizzled out into nothing. The evil magistrate, who killed Jiusi's family, got stabbed to death by a girl. So, what was the point of that storyline at all? I guess halfway thorough the show, the writers decided to switch the direction from revenge to political intrigue.

The whole drama could've been completed in 25 episodes. After the rebels were defeated and the new emperor took the throne, the story should've reached its logical conclusion, but the writers dragged it for another 10+ episodes to meet the maximum allowable threshold of 40 episodes. On top of that, the drama had long draggy conversational scenes about nothing. I didn't care about everything a character was feeling at a particular moment. I zoned out through most of the conversations or fast-forwarded through half of them.

I ended up skipping the last 10 episodes and just watched episode 40.

The music was good, the acting was great. But all the positive things were completely overshadowed by a totally incoherent plot.

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Good drama

At first, I dropped this drama after a few episodes because I detest female characters who are purposely written as clumsy, whinny, and clueless. It's not endearing but really annoying. But after hearing good things about it, I decided to give it another chance and watched it till the end.

This drama has amazing character development. It starts off as kind of comedic but later becomes quite dark and emotional. The main characters go through a transformation. She becomes more mature. He gains feelings and empathy. They are star-crossed lovers and this drama really went out of its way to show the type of love that endures. They fought for each other, made sacrifices, had faith in each other and at the end stayed true to who they were. They also made each other better. She matured from a clumsy airhead to a thoughtful person. He developed feelings and was able to form relationships and appreciate others.

The ending felt rushed. One moment she was waiting for him to come back to life, the next moment he was standing behind her "I am baaaack!", they kissed, the end.

The story tended to drag sometimes but it didn't affect the plot too much.

The acting was fantastic, especially by Dylan Wang. The way he conveyed emotion after Orchid died was heart breaking.

Overall, the show has some really good acting, good music, really emotional scenes, and a very touching love story. Recommend!

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Promising start, boring romance, lame ending

The entire drama felt like the writing team was either completely replaced in the second half or the writers decided to troll the audience. I was a fan up to about episode 12. The political intrigue was very engaging and the story was worth watching just for that. After the crown prince returned to the palace, the plot fell completely flat and the ending undid everything the main character accomplished.

The writers built up Lee Gon to be a calm, intelligent, responsible man who cared about the country. He spent the entire show fighting for what was rightfully his - the throne, just to voluntarily give it up for a woman he barely knew. This was so out of character for him because he was written as someone who was incredibly level-headed, especially in comparison to his brother, who kept throwing temper tantrums and crying all the time. Instead of creating a plot that made sense and writing a convincing love story, the writers threw their own characters under the bus to force feed us a happy ending.

I would have been alright by this decision if the romance was convincing. It wasn't. The actors looked stiff together and had very little chemistry. Barely any time was spent on building a meaningful romantic connection. A few days in the woods together wasn't enough for Lee Gon to abandon his responsibilities for a woman he didn't know all that well.

Overall, this was an incredibly underwhelming show that lost all charm in the second half. The romance was bland and the ending was terrible.

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No Ta chi

The story was very unique. It had some LGBT elements that had to be handled with a certain level of care and awareness. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, the writers decided to go down the safe, less gay, route without realizing that the ending completely destroyed the plot.

** SPOILERS **

The drama was about Bong Hwan (BH), a 21st century man, traveling back in time and waking up in a body of a princess soon to be a queen. It was filled with very funny and clever moments that kept me very entertained. But, after episodes 14-15, the plot kind of became stale. The scenes were not as funny anymore but annoying. I eyerolled at the scene where the queen threw a temper tantrum over Lady Choi eating all the yogurt. However, this wasn't the biggest problem with the show. The biggest problem was the ending.

The story was about BH's relationship and subsequent love story with the king. Nowhere in the drama did the writers elude that BH and So Yong (SY) ever fought for control of the body, or that sometimes it was BH and sometimes it was SY who was in control. It was always BH. This was even confirmed in the queen's last conversation with Byung In telling him that "she" did not know where So Yong was or whether she was even alive.

The king, Cheoljong, fell in love with BH in SY's body. BH's unorthodox behavior, unpredictability, straight forwardness, lack of manners was what was attractive. If the king wanted a meek and polite young lady, he would've stayed in love with Hwa Jin.

Everything the king did - writing the queen's dictionary filled with new words that BH introduced to him, writing a journal about new fighting and exercise techniques that BH taught him, reforming the country, was because of his relationship with BH, not SY. SY by herself was a very minor character and appeared in only a few flashbacks. Even SY's ideas about women's rights were BH's ideas and not hers.

And, what do we get at the end? BH goes back home without even saying "good-bye" to anyone. The king ended up with SY, who was not the person he fell in love with. But, that's ok, so long as SY looked exactly like the person he loved, we were supposed to accept it. What a terrible, horrible, no good message.

I am not sure why the writers did not go down the incarnation route where SY and BH were the same person living in different eras, and, at the end have SY and BH's souls and personalities merge as one in SY's body. There was already a premise for that with the queen's identity crisis "her" being a man in a woman's body and having a romantic/sexual relationship with the king.

It was also strange how the king did not pick up on the fact that after BH left, his wife became a completely different person who could no longer cook and had an entirely different personality. Or, that SY ended up lying to the king about who she was and did exactly what Hwa Jin did. But we are supposed to ignore it.

Shin Hye Sun is an actress from god. She did an amazing job portraying BH and SY as completely different people, they even spoke differently. SY was soft spoken. BH was coarse and aggressive. It was rather strange to assume that the king, who was head over hills in love with BH, did not see that his wife was different, considering that the differences in SY's personalities after the suicide incident were consistently addressed in the show. We did get a scene where the king somewhat realized that he lost something, but that scene looked like an afterthought rather than a serious and tragic realization that something important was lost.

Even Byung In, whom I hated, became a sympathetic character at the end because he actually confronted BH about SY and was the only one whose love was authentic. The writers made it look like it didn't matter to the king who he was married to so long as that person looked a certain way.

I honestly thought that BH would return to the king in one way or another, but the ending left me completely flabbergasted. Nobody ended up with the person they actually loved and the king's relationship with the queen was based on a lie. The attempt to paint SY to be more like BH because she started cursing was a lousy cop out. What made BH different was his boldness, a sense of justice, and ability to form close relationships with servants and nobility alike. SY just capitalized on it and ripped rewards from everything BH accomplished, without achieving anything on her own. What a stupid way to destroy an awesome story.

The rewatch value is like in the Game of Thrones. Everything is awesome until it all falls apart at the end.

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Meh

The drama started out strong, but as the story went on it got progressively boring.

I liked Park Min Young in "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim?" and "Marry My Husband". She does well in modern drama. But, here she was completely miscast. Firstly, her character looked more mature than ML. Secondly, they had very little chemistry with Yeon Woo Jin because both characters were really bland. She looked way better with Lee Dong Gun because he looked more mature and because Yi Yoong was a much more dynamic character.

The plot was also a mess. The storyline with the super secret organization went nowhere. The storyline with the super secret pawn shop also went nowhere. Yeok wanted to do everything - become king, be with Chae Kyung, and make up with his brother. But, he ended up being weak, indecisive, and flaky. He kept whining about everything and constantly changed plans making everyone pissed off because they spent way too much effort into trying to put him on the throne. And, after Yeok became king, he wasn't much better than his brother who allowed a corrupt minister run the show. Chae Kyung was frustrating because she meddled too much, had redundant monologues about feelings, and kept pushing Yeok to make up with his older brother when there was no point. She also fainted a lot.

The love triangle between Chae Kyung and the two brothers was pointless. Yi Yoong barely had any romantic interactions with her. But, I wish he did because that would've made her character a lot more interesting. And, as a couple they looked much better together.

And, lets not forget about the ridiculous super sneaky spying scenes where characters stood in plain sight and eavesdropped on other people's conversations without ever being noticed. This drama has perfect the art of invisibility.

The acting was all over the place. Park Min Young and Yeon Woo Jin were both underwhelming and very bland, while Lee Dong Gun was overly emotional and overacted in every scene. He also twitched his mouth a lot.

Overall, weak characters, flat plot, ridiculous writing made this drama pretty disappointing.

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The grass is always greener on the other side

The drama gives a realistic view on marriage and what happens when two people stop communicating and being considerate. Cha Joo Hyuk is selfish, self-centered, and completely unaware (or refuses to acknowledge) that his weaponized incompetence triggers his wife's temper. He dreams of a better life without her until he is given an opportunity to travel back in time to change his outcome.

The first 12 episodes have consistently good pacing and fluid storytelling. Cha Joo Hyuk wakes up married to his beautiful and rich first love until he meets Seo Woo Jin again. I enjoyed the use of flashbacks showing just enough of Joo Hyuk and Woo Jin's relationship and how in love they were before marriage, which plays a big part in his character development. The story switches between comedy and melodrama as the main couple gets to know each other again. The writers portray Joo Hyuk feelings of guilt and regret rather well as he realizes the gravity of his mistake and what he lost.

Woo Jin is clever, spunky, and has a hilarious sense of humor. I really love her characterization. Thankfully, the writers avoid the cliche portrayal of a messy and childish heroine, and create a well-rounded adult who can be serious and funny. Her and Joo Hyuk have very good chemistry and slowly begin to re-connect. Even secondary characters are fun. The drama gives them just enough focus not to overwhelm the viewer or take the attention away from the main couple.

The last 4 episodes undo everything I loved about the drama. After confessing his mistake to Woo Jin, Joo Hyuk is desperate, full of regret and longing. This is when the story should've started to wrap up. But, the writers force us to sit through 4 more episodes of Woo Jin relentlessly pursuing Joo Hyuk to reconcile. Joo Hyuk's behavior is completely contrary to what he wants as he goes out of his way to avoid her and regresses back to the self-centered jerk he was at the beginning. Instead of giving his redemption arc a logical conclusion, the writers turn him into a spineless coward refusing to make any effort to be a better man and husband. The main couple's explosive chemistry completely fizzles out with Joo Hyuk's vacant stares and Woo Jin's continuous begging. At that point, it is hard to root for them or even care if they stay together. Moreover, the drama gives too many filler scenes to the secondary characters. I say watch episodes 1-12 and skim through the last 4 just to get to the happy ending.

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No plot

The drama has a lot of great ideas but no coherent plot. At the beginning, there are enough engaging moments to keep me interested, but they quickly fizzle out into a boring and draggy marathon of underdeveloped plot lines.

Han Se Gye is dynamic and quirky to Seo Do Jae's low-key frozen face. But, Do Jae never grows on me. He is a carbon copy of Nam Se Hui from "Because This Is My First Life" with zero charm and personality. Their unique conditions could've played a big part in their character and relationship growth. Instead, Se Gye's face change devolves into a series of anticlimactic mini-arcs and the rest of their interactions is boring and pointless banter.

When it comes to the plot, it's a number of half-assed story lines with extremely easy resolutions. The face-swap is interesting for about five minutes until it becomes a bunch of mini-arcs that have no impact on the story and character development. The so-called "villains" are passive-aggressive, semi-infantile jerks who are obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious with no depth or purpose, and, they are dealt with fairly quickly without creating any actual tension. Se Gye's identity crisis becomes an afterthought, devoid of any substance, as the writers choose a safer route with light-hearted comedy and regularly used cliches. What's worse, the mystery behind her condition is never explained.

Secondary characters are shallow and forgettable. I ended up skipping most scenes with Sa-ra and Ryu Eun Ho. They weren't interesting enough to keep my attention as I already struggled with the drama's draggy plot.

Overall, the show is a lot of missed opportunities to create a compelling love story between two odd people with unique issues. The drama is riddled with repetitive moments, overuse of flashbacks, and cheesy dialogue. Serious elements, that made the drama interesting, are reduced to comedy or abandoned altogether. This was a one-time watch for me.

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Beautiful

Where do I even begin? This drama is gorgeous. It's so well written and paced. The plot jumps right into the perfect family life of Baek Hee Sung and Cha Ji Won. They are happy and in love until Heesung's past starts to catch up with him.

The plot is a rollercoaster with a good blend of a crime thriller and romance. Heesung and Ji Won have a beautiful life together, but he has a dark past she doesn't know about. When everything starts to unravel, the drama does a great job showing Ji Won's conflicting emotions. She is heartbroken and confused. But, her love for her husband and keen intellect eventually lead her to the truth. The first couple of episodes creates an air of mystery around the main character. Heesung's real motivations are unknown. He may be a villain because of his violent reunion with Kim Moo Jin. But, as the story progresses, we slowly find out that not everything is as it seems.

The pacing is surprisingly good from start to finish. The use of flashbacks is very well balanced and gives just enough background without deviating from the present storyline, and, giving a glimpse into Heesung's childhood, the person he is supposed to be, and the beginning of his and Ji Won's journey to love. There are no filler arcs. Every character is relevant and plays a part in the plot development. Every twist and turn is thrilling and adds to the complexity of the story. One issue is that the main villain is revealed very late in the show creating some issues with pacing and plot continuity. But, it doesn't hurt the storytelling too much and the drama is able to bounce back. Another issue is longwinded melodramatic scenes. The writers probably wanted us to delve deep into the characters' thoughts. But, the overly dramatic scenes often feel excessive with the actors overplaying the characters' emotions. And, the human trafficking arc is out of place and completely unnecessary, especially in relation to serial killers finding their victims.

The drama has one of the best love stories I've seen in k-drama. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won have unforgettable chemistry and do a wonderful job relaying the characters' emotions. Heesung and Ji Won are truly soulmates who cannot live without each other and go to great lengths to stay together.

The acting goes without saying. Lee Joon Gi perfectly relays Heesung's love for his wife, his struggle to understand himself, and trying to cope with the injustice done to him. Kim Ji Hoon is dynamic and absolutely believable as an insanely good looking psychopath. The OST is beautiful and fits well with the story. "Fee you" is one of my favorite songs now.

All I can say is that despite the drama's few shortcomings, this truly is something that took my breath away and made me miss it after it ended. Definitely recommend.

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Great romantic chemistry

This is a romance drama with some gothic fantasy elements. The production and acting was great and the story was very entertaining.

Caiwei was a young woman with a troubled past . She was a serious character who lived quietly as a coroner and inadvertently found herself mixed up in murder mystery. After the face swap, this characterization was completely gone. It's not that Ju Jing Yi (JJY) is a bad actress. She is typecast to play a specific character. So, herein lies the problem with characterization by JJY where she portrayed a variation of Fu Rong and Yunxi, instead of a solemn girl introduced by Zheng He Hui Zi. Curiously enough, her characterization of the original Shangguan Zhi was on point. The showrunners should've done a better job at coaching her about the role because she obviously can act outside her usual stereotype.

The romance was nicely written. Pen Yue's original obsession with Caiwei was a bit off-putting. But as he rediscovered the "new" and "improved" Shangguan Zhi (SZ), he slowly started falling in love with her. The writers did a good job showing the personality change, that SZ was no longer a mean-spirited woman, but a very nice person. I loved Pen Yue's and SZ's interactions and situations they were thrown in where Pen Yue gradually started seeing the differences between the old SZ and the new SZ drawing similarities between the new SZ and Caiwei. I also liked that Pen Yue went through internal struggle feeling guilt over the fact that he started developing feelings for SZ while still mourning his dead wife. Not to mention, the chemistry between the actors was amazing. This is one of the fewer romance dramas where adults act like actual adults, instead of awkward teenagers.

I did not love the ending. Some good characters were wasted just to draw an emotional reaction from the audience. And, instead of tying up all the loose ends, it ended on a giant cliff hanger not revealing who the actual mastermind was. Will this lead to a sequel or are we just supposed to wonder? Who knows.

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Sometimes interesting, sometimes not

This was an entertaining show but not without some flaws. The biggest one was segmented plot with not fluid transition from one arc to another. The start was promising, a deity crashing into a mortal realm trying to escape from an unwanted marriage. There, she met a sickly mortal and fell in love with him. After she was forced to go back and the mortal died from old age, we found out that the mortal wasn't mortal at all but an ancient god. Their interactions were cute and the parting was rather emotional. After that, not much happened.

After Shenli finally met Xingzhi and found out who he was, the plot was reduced to just their interactions. This would've been ok if the acting adequately portrayed emotions. Whether Zhao Li Ying is Ming Lan, Chu Qiao, or Shenli, she is the same emotionless doll in every role. There is no variety in her acting, which significantly takes away from her chemistry with ML. Lin Geng Xin's acting was a little bit more nuanced. While portraying a stoic god, his emotions where still there in the micro-expressions, which I liked.

When the villain finally showed up, the plot picked up again. Unfortunately, with Xin Yun Lai's terrible acting, Mofang was non-threatening and completely uninteresting. Although, we were supposed to believe that he wasn't the true evil mastermind because he was in love with Shenli, the writers could've done something interesting with him instead of reducing him to a tragic lover.

The last two episodes were the most entertaining. Although, I couldn't care less about Ms. Jin's love story, in these episodes, Shenli and Xingzhi showed the most emotion which looked like the actors broke the roles and played other characters.

Overall, I wouldn't call this a masterpiece by any stretch. It's entertaining and worth watching. Will I rewatch it? Maybe.

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Do not snack while watching

Sifeng was easily the best character in the show. He was loving, patient, loyal, and had convictions. The writers did a good job developing his relationship with Xuanji. Although, she was frustrating at times due to her cluelessness, it wasn't completely without merit. She was missing her six senses, so it was natural for her to not understand love. But, she understood friendship and bonds that brought people together. And, due to her bond with Sifeng and his help to get her senses back, she gradually fell in love with him.

Normally, a slew of misunderstandings would be frustrating. But, here, they were necessary to show character development and Xuanji's struggle to reunite with Sifeng and to get him to forgive her. I liked that the writers did not just make Sifeng take her back as soon as she showed up. She had to work for it and she never gave up. This showed that her love was as strong as his, which I liked.

Now, the worst part of the show was the constant blood spitting. We really need to go away with that. It's disgusting and completely unnecessary. Characters don't need to spit blood in every fight or with every physical injury. It looks forced and ridiculous. Watching the show completely destroyed my snack time.

I also did not care for most of the secondary characters. Linglong was spoiled and annoying. The sixth brother was boring. Wu Tong falling in love with Linglong was completely nonsensical and poorly written. If the writers went down the redemption route and wrote Wu Tong as less of a psycho, their relationship could've been interesting. None of the sects had any redeeming qualities. They were narrowminded, pompous, and thought very highly of themselves while committing atrocities. The demons were a lot more relatable and sympathetic.

Because I absolutely hated Hao Chen/Bailing for his continuous meddling and self-righteousness, I wanted to see him die a horrible death. But his defeat was rather underwhelming. He just realized that he was wrong and was demoted. I thought it was anticlimactic. I wanted to see him defeated in battle like the villain that he was.

Overall, I could watch this show again because I absolutely loved the love story.

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Too long and boring

Another Chinese drama that unnecessarily dragged for twice as many episodes than necessary. There wasn't any actual plot, but a loosely put together romance/slice of life story.

Everything that made the show interesting, SWAT action and disaster rescue, quickly fizzled out into a mundane slice of life story. Kelei and Mika, who were the only couple worth watching, got together early in the show and had an extremely vanilla relationship without any ups and downs. All the couples had no dynamic or sexual chemistry. The show often looked like a real life documentary just filming people hanging out.

Kelei/Mika were the most wholesome, but they acted like an old married couple. There was no tension, conflict, or sexual chemistry. Many of their scenes did not have any direction. They just bantered and played around. If they were a real life couple, they would've been a joy to watch. But this is a TV drama that needs conflict, especially for a young couple. They kissed a couple of times at the beginning of their relationship and that was the height of their romantic chemistry, never to be seen again. It was pretty unbelievable that the writers thought it was a good idea to write a young couple spending so much time alone and never making out.

Wenbo/Qingxia were plain toxic. She arbitrarily started liking him after meeting him maybe twice and began pursuing him. He also liked her, but for some stupid reason kept rejecting her. Instead of moving on after being repeatedly rejected, she kept pursuing him and he kept rejecting her. His lame explanation later on revealed that he was rejecting her because he thought she was better matched with another guy. Seriously? And, this tripe lasted for 30+ episodes. When they finally got together, I couldn't care less. I actually ended up skipping most of their scenes because their bickering was exhausting.

Chief Shao/Sister Keyao were just ok. In most of their scenes, they spent time together without any romantic chemistry. There was nothing interesting about them at all.

Overall, the drama would've been a lot better if it was cut by half and had a lot more conflict and romantic chemistry. Instead, we had to watch scenes upon scenes of young people acting like they've been married for decades. The story was boring a lot more often than it was exciting. There were a lot of filler scenes of characters just doing mundane things. I ended up skipping through a lot in the last ten episodes just to get it over with. The last three episodes with the hostages were interesting, everything between the beginning and the end was a snooze fest.

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Not completely horrible but not great either

Even good actors and an interesting plot idea couldn't save the drama. It had all the right tools but no oomph.

Han Ri Ta and Do Ha were the most boring two characters. I get that Do Ha was supposed to be a sad person who just wanted to die, but in the very least the writers could've given him a personality and more facial expressions. Han Ri Ta wasn't any better. They were one depressed person falling in love with another depressed person resulting in slow and longwinded conversations about what sad lives they had, which got old very fast.

The most mindbogglingly stupid thing in the whole story was Han Ri Ta's reasons for killing Do Ha. She created a bad situation by killing his father forcing both of them to become fugitives. But, instead of having faith in him to deal with it and moving forward together, she just decided to kill him to end it all because she didn't want to deal with it anymore. Were we supposed to believe this was love? They were portrayed as star crossed lovers, but her motivations were shallow and self-serving .

The villain was one of the most terribly written villains I've seen in a long time. Firstly, the evil dad wanted to kill Do Ha for "disobeying" him, why? Because he brought a girl home and fell in love with her. That's it. Furthermore, the evil dad's ghost spend 1500 years chasing after Han Ri Ta's reincarnations just to kill them as revenge for killing him because he was a terrible father. This was basically a giant recurring temper tantrum, being evil for evil's sake, not for anything substantial or meaningful.

Some plotlines randomly disappeared. Firstly, making FL a firefighter and ML a celebrity was never going to work. There was no situation where they could consistently be together to move the story forward. As a result, nobody ever worked because they needed to spend time together for the story's sake. She was a firefighter for a total of two episodes and he quit being a celebrity altogether except occasional fangirls chasing him when it was convenient, although he was supposed to shoot a super special historical drama at the beginning of the show, which went nowhere.

The finale wasn't well thought out either. There was no point bringing Jun Oh back, unless he and Young Hwa were going to end up together. The giant plot hole why Jun Oh and Do Ha looked identical was never explained. The writers left it as pure coincidence, which was some very lazy writing, especially because Do Ha and Young Hwa future reincarnated selves looked the same. This was a waste of a great story idea, because Jun Oh looking like Do Ha could've been a plot device to give Young Hwa a happy-ish ending too. But Young Hwa did not get her happy ending, neither did Do Ha. Yes, their souls were reincarnated at the end, but they were reincarnated as different people who probably did not remember their past lives. Young Hwa was unique because she was the closest version of Han Ri Ta and because there was still Do Ha's unfinished business. After the curse was lifted, there was no more unfinished business. Do Ha's soul left and Young Hwa continued on with her life without her true love. I thought this ending was rather tragic.

Overall, the drama started out with an epic bang and fell completely flat with shallow characters and villains acting like cartoon bad guys. There were moments where it tugged at my heart strings, but the badly written plot and characters' stupid decisions made the drama a chore to watch. This was definitely not Kim Young Dae's best work.

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So good!

This is easily one of the best c-dramas of 2023. It does not use the same lame tropes so many other dramas fall victim to. There are no unnecessary plotlines or characters, no continuous cycle of misunderstanding and miscommunication. The drama has meaningful character development, romantic chemistry, and one of the most wholesome and healthy relationships I've ever seen.

There were, of course, some problems. Li Tongguang's (LT) was a terribly written character. His continuous obsession with Ruyi was extremely frustrating . The writers went out of their way to keep him incompetent until the very last episode. His immaturity caused a lot of people to die unnecessarily. After the emperor was killed, it was pretty unbelievable that the first thing he chose to do as the new regent was to poison Ruyi and force her to marry him, just for her to be rescued by Yuanzhou in the same episode, and for Yuanzhou to tell LT for the 100000000th time that he was a creep and a coward. This was especially frustrating because it happened after LT had really good scenes with Princess Yang Ying making it seem like he was getting over his infantile obsession with Ruyi. The show also fixated too much on the Ruyi and Yuanzhou's love story. Yes, we all loved them. They became a couple early and it was refreshing to see them having mutual understanding, respect and love, without falling back on jealousy and miscommunication. But, the writers should've given more screen time to other couples too. I really wanted to see more romantic chemistry between LT and Princess Yang Ying.

Princess Yang Ying was one of my favorite characters who went through the most intense character development. She started as a meek and weak girl just to grow into a strong person taking charge of her life. There was no character regression from better to worse. Everything that happened to her was on point and only contributed to her character growth.

The romance between Ruyi and Yuanzhou was unbelievably wholesome. Yuanzhou was written as every girl's dream man - tall and handsome, strong, kind and attentive, loving and understanding, not obsessive or overly-jealous, intelligent, a friend, a leader, a fighter and protector. The guy was perfect. He let Ruyi handle her business but also protected her when she needed protecting. And, Ruyi didn't magically turn into a damsel-in-destress as soon as a man entered her life.

The message of the show was incredibly meaningful - friendship, loyalty, country, love, and staying true to yourself. I was also impressed by how the characters went out of their way to stress the importance of having respect for women and often said things that we as audience were feeling when someone *ahem* Li Tongguang *ahem* acted like a mentally deranged creep.

I have to say something about the ending. A lot of people hated it, but I thought it was ok. I don't think the main couple died. Some people interpret the ending as symbolic or metaphorical or just Chu Yue's dream. I can't agree. We never saw anyone actually dying, but a lot of suggestive scenes that someone supposedly died. For characters who successfully faked their death throughout the show, they faked it again to be able to walk away and to start a family in seclusion, just like Yuanzhou wanted from the very beginning. And, Ruyi followed him because she couldn't imagine life without him. If it was Yang Ying in the last scene, the death scenario would've made more sense because she was very close with Ruyi and Yuanzhou. Chu Yue - not so much. When Chu Yue saw the boy, she immediately imagined Yu Shisan because that was her last memory of him. Instead, it was someone else who was named after Yu Shisan bearing Yuanzhou's last name. Yuanzhou named his son in honor of his best friend who died. The only red flag was the boy wearing white and riding a white horse, white traditionally being the color of mourning in China. But the idea that death came to reunite Chu Yue with her friends in the afterlife, most of whom she didn't even have a chance to develop a relationship with, looking like Ruyi's and Yuanzhou's son who was never even born, is some crazy mental gymnastics I am not willing to entertain.

The acting was good. I loved Alen Fang's portrayal of Yu Shisan, who was so goofy and adorable. This was such a pleasant surprise after my disappointment with his performance in the Long Ballad. And, of course, Liu Yuning will forever be my favorite.

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An expensive production with a whole lot of nothing

I was really looking forward to this drama solely for Lee Jun Ho because I loved him in the Red Sleeve. But, the show is so utterly underwhelming and shallow, there is nothing to look forward to. The characters only exist to pine after each other without trying to accomplish anything in life making for a very boring and uninspiring story.

This is a cliche rom-com where a rich guy falls for a working class employee. It would've been interesting if the writers treated the characters like adults, instead of high school students, and gave them mature interactions and meaningful conversations. Instead, they proceed to bore us with every single overused cliche known to k-drama making the plot extremely predictable. Gu Won has no personality outside his crush on Sarang. At the beginning, he is shown as a sophisticated and rich bad-boy skydiving in a suit and landing on a helicopter pad James Bond style. Later, we find out that he is nothing more than a nepotism baby with no social awareness, no competence, no charisma and exists solely to pine after Sarang. Even his feud with his sister is superficial because he doesn't do anything other than pursue his love interest. He finished an MBA at the beginning of the show, which could've been a nice plot device for him to start serious work in the hotel and eventually become the owner. No, he is a director in name only and doesn't do anything or show any particular interest in work. Even his employees have to tell him that he needs influence and support in order to succeed, instead of spending so much time obsessing over FL.

Some story arcs are completely asinine. The Arab prince is reduced to a total simp for Sarang competing for her affection with Gu Won. God knows why we need another atrocious love rival trope where everyone falls in love with the heroine because she is so precious. And the arc with the flight attendant friend isn't interesting enough for me to care about because she is such a minor character.

Overall, the show felt like a high school drama filled with overused cliches. Characters have no motivation and there is no real plot. Pass.

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