This review may contain spoilers
local chronicle of the worst parts of Ming Dynasty living
If you are a survivor of childhood abuse, you may want to skip this or get ready to be triggered.
Historical drama and not a romance, but love is here, left and right, and wrong. And mystery. And frustration.
There are a few ways to describe this show. The most capturing is a great quiet love story between two mature adults who want to be together (long gazes, shy holding hands and trying to be where the other one is) as well as a love story of a rich and handsome guy who is ready to throw away his family honors and fortune to be with the low status woman he adores, and we can see where her heart starts to quicken! On the third hand 😂this is a story of obsession (not love) that schemes, manipulates and abuses in the name of a higher emotional "fate-driven" entitlement! All wrapped in intelligence of the FL, upright nature of a stoic ML, charms of carefree looker boy SML who stands by his lady, while we cringe at the presence and the smirk of the villain with his fingers in everything.
This is also a frustrating investigative drama following minor yamen cases and the past secrets and mysteries of local residents with power struggle amongst prefectural dignitaries with a few of greedy merchants and stuck-up scholars mixed in.
This drama is a spellbinding story of lower- or middle-class people who struggle with maintaining their morality and staying afloat. You get FL who avoids attention and favors, and even love, while using her gender assigned attributes to keep alive, because that gives her a chance to maybe uncover the secret of her parent's death or someone's misery, and to contribute to giving the world a bit of hope and justice because she is a woman who perseveres by bending rather than breaking - without losing her integrity. You get a sobering sense of how little power most people had in setting own life and how much manipulation they endured which yielded sorrow, disappointment and resignation.
I liked how the drama was made - you don't get awesome color palette, breathtaking views, opulent interiors and frilly costumes as life here is harsh in general unless you are nobility or hold higher office. You don't get swooning females, sword-handling cavaliers professing their love with dimples and receiving eye lid flutters with smiled kisses. You don't get larger than life characters fighting with spiritual powers and heroes who save the day.
Really good script not aiming at dazzling us with cleverness of the yamen investigators, solid characters that slowly reveal what their dilemmas are, great camera work around slightly claustrophobic set and good editing (the director used mini-drama tricks to make this full-length series flow almost effortlessly and move us from one part to another without much unnecessary filler delays). Perfect musical framing. Actors picked for their acting styles and ability to embody the characters.
Unfortunately, after watching the whole series I had to keep my rating low because of anticlimactic and underwhelming ending. Something happened after ep 31 where the script and the story line became weak and the explanation behind what happened in ep36 are completely missing.
Historical drama and not a romance, but love is here, left and right, and wrong. And mystery. And frustration.
There are a few ways to describe this show. The most capturing is a great quiet love story between two mature adults who want to be together (long gazes, shy holding hands and trying to be where the other one is) as well as a love story of a rich and handsome guy who is ready to throw away his family honors and fortune to be with the low status woman he adores, and we can see where her heart starts to quicken! On the third hand 😂this is a story of obsession (not love) that schemes, manipulates and abuses in the name of a higher emotional "fate-driven" entitlement! All wrapped in intelligence of the FL, upright nature of a stoic ML, charms of carefree looker boy SML who stands by his lady, while we cringe at the presence and the smirk of the villain with his fingers in everything.
This is also a frustrating investigative drama following minor yamen cases and the past secrets and mysteries of local residents with power struggle amongst prefectural dignitaries with a few of greedy merchants and stuck-up scholars mixed in.
This drama is a spellbinding story of lower- or middle-class people who struggle with maintaining their morality and staying afloat. You get FL who avoids attention and favors, and even love, while using her gender assigned attributes to keep alive, because that gives her a chance to maybe uncover the secret of her parent's death or someone's misery, and to contribute to giving the world a bit of hope and justice because she is a woman who perseveres by bending rather than breaking - without losing her integrity. You get a sobering sense of how little power most people had in setting own life and how much manipulation they endured which yielded sorrow, disappointment and resignation.
I liked how the drama was made - you don't get awesome color palette, breathtaking views, opulent interiors and frilly costumes as life here is harsh in general unless you are nobility or hold higher office. You don't get swooning females, sword-handling cavaliers professing their love with dimples and receiving eye lid flutters with smiled kisses. You don't get larger than life characters fighting with spiritual powers and heroes who save the day.
Really good script not aiming at dazzling us with cleverness of the yamen investigators, solid characters that slowly reveal what their dilemmas are, great camera work around slightly claustrophobic set and good editing (the director used mini-drama tricks to make this full-length series flow almost effortlessly and move us from one part to another without much unnecessary filler delays). Perfect musical framing. Actors picked for their acting styles and ability to embody the characters.
Unfortunately, after watching the whole series I had to keep my rating low because of anticlimactic and underwhelming ending. Something happened after ep 31 where the script and the story line became weak and the explanation behind what happened in ep36 are completely missing.
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