This review may contain spoilers
The most compact drama in term of plot I have watched in recent years.
[P.S. I am sharing the comment I wrote here 20 days ago. This contains a bit of explanation of revenge drama MC personality so thought of sharing it in the review section just so that more people could understand Zhang Hai]I just finished this drama today. I finished episode 1 to 35 long ago; just kept putting off the last 5 episodes because I didn't want it to end. This is the most compact drama of 40 episodes I have ever watched, literally no unnecessary fillers ; even the romance felt so complete and touching despite being a subplot which was better than many romance focused dramas. I will just write a review about some things I really liked about this drama.
Firstly, There are many hit dramas but beautiful plot delivery is rare. This drama really nailed this point. Its like one inch more or less would have led it astray. They presented the characterization of every character in every stage of plot beautifully. For example, when main lead Zhang Hai first comes to the capital before he finishes his training and his schemes at the beginning are shown a bit green as it should be along with the nervousness of a young man also hatred/anger that he finds difficult to hide from others' gazes. But with every small step forward towards his goal we see him become a seasoned tactician.
Secondly, there was some tiny elements of lucky-break / gary stu conveniences which was interlaced with the plot so well that it didn't feel abnormal or weird, it just gave the feeling that if it was a novel I would say " in a story there are some coincidences/ circumstances needed to make the story smooth flowing" . In a word, it felt just normal.
Third point and the most important one, as the male lead of a revenge story Zhang Hai was set as an upright man from start to end which is also rare. Because, revenge dramas/novels main characters find it difficult to maintain their bottom completely or not hurting/using the innocent for their own purpose. Throughout the whole plot Zhang Hai's father Kuai Duo's shadow was always there to show that Zhang Hai was influenced by his father's principles for example the carriage flashback scene why his father always walked..so no matter how difficult it was Zhang Hai never bend his moral bottom line although it made his revenge path much harder. So, despite being a revenge drama character, Zhang Hai never came off as a hypocrite or annoying rather positive and upright despite the darkness and gloom of revenge which I found remarkable. Zhang Hai was made a complex but extremely likeable character. We know In some revenge drama/novels if MC was set as upright it might look naive or holy father; In some story characters are shown as upright with principles but then the plot will show that MC has involved/implicated people unrelated to his conspiracies because he was helpless, no choice blah blah... in a word hypocrite. But this drama successfully avoided all this and made the character Zhang Hai brilliant.
All in all, kudos to the actors, directors, production team for delivering a drama of such high quality
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