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This review may contain spoilers
Fantastic vertical "version" of Prisoner of Beauty TRUE TO THE NOVEL
A great "hate-to-love" relationship with distrust and suspicion between the leads (all the reasons for that shown and no simplistic resolution by googly eyes and scheming) mingled with raw (unconsented) lust and jealousy, and slow, sensuous yielding (with consent), where you can actually see both leads awkwardness at first when becoming intimate, learning how to tolerate one another's differences, and then falling for each other while surprising themselves with tenderness and recognition of loyalty build up. Our FL learns how to yield in order to lead and (like in Shadow Love) we have here a great metaphor for male love: it starts with attraction and sex and requires him to develop beyond desire and instinctual domineering. We never see outright cruelty and humiliation as applied by strong ML, which VDs are full of, but third-party evil deeds are there, shown I must say with appropriate restraint. What this production has are these (and I elaborate below):
1 excellent novel adaptation
2 awesome acting and directing,
3 killer editing and overall dramatic effect.
1 Almost everything here is how it was in the novel-of course scaled down to what matters. We don't get extensive background of the story like in the book and no massive dump of who is who at the start but editing of the short flashbacks is done so well, you are right away swept by 1st life tragedy of the Xiao Qiao, FL, killed by her emperor husband Liu Yan, when Wei Shao, ML, storms the palace taking the country from the worthless ruler. We know she got "reincarnated" but in the 2nd life she was married off to the ML instead of her sister and we know that there is a blood feud going on between the Wei and Xiao families (ML's father and brother died because of Xiao clan's betrayal). But granny Wei arranged for the marriage between the families to heal both. And the story here follows the book closely, while dismissing minor plots that would have taken too much time in the micro-drama, but leaving the elements that make it really clear what kind of relationship Man Man and Zhong Lin had with each other-and boy do they show it! In fact, they show a lot -including that famous scene of the cousin Wei Yan pleasuring himself in front of the mural of the FL he just painted! Ah, VD... less censorship of risqué and naughty.
2 I was wondering what Ceasar Wu was doing in VD, but I tell ya - he is nailing it! Liu Yu Ning was good in his version of ML (if you like to watch a neanderthal being led by nose), but man, Ceasar is literally the Wei Shao I imagined when reading the novel (competent, smart, all in or all out kind of guy, who does not allow anybody to lead him on). Unlike Song Zu Er in PoB (cunning and manipulative from start to end), Yue Yu Ting, does not pretend to be a wilted flower while being clever and scheming; she is just a woman well aware of the past life tragedies and deathly afraid of watching them happen again, hence acting the way she does-even if she detests deception and almost prostituting herself to the enemy. If this was done as a full-length drama with both leads and by the same crew - I would be much happier with it than with the Prisoner of Beauty released earlier this year. Even secondary characters were casted well here. And although I am still in love with Liu Duan Duan as the long version cousin, the one here is good, as is the ambitious widow. Too bad there are no names listed here for all the cast and crew.
3 I loved how director was able to condense whole chapters in one scene and to show exactly what we needed to see to get a gist of the character, situation or the problem. We get less than 3 minutes of FL's flashback and reaction to the news of former flame of the ML plus Su E Huang's short exchange with ML topped with her inner commentary on what she wants and voila - we know what to expect of Yu Lou. One sentence overheard by someone plus the look on their faces and their thought or flashback and voila-we completely understand what comes next. And the whole set up with sister and the stable boy? We did not need it as long as both FL's sister and her spouse appeared and there was a clash between ML and Bi Zhi. Same thing with the goofy mother of the ML and poisoning of the grandmother: short, to the point, done! Yea, there were some liberties with details, but not so drastic as to change the tone of the story like in PoB the drama - this was done consistently and with a plan to yield satisfying delivery of the main characters' story. I do wish MDL listed the director and screenwriter along with secondary actors so I could follow them in the future.
I will be honest: after reading the novel I really wanted to see what could be done on screen with such a violent character of the ML and underwhelming FL I read about. After watching Prisoner of Beauty this spring (which I rated 8/10 mostly because it was a completely different characterization of the leads than that in the novel but decent nevertheless in its own right, although I disliked the deceptive FL and bumbling brute of ML) I came across this. Someone said it was low budget PoB but I have to say this is better than PoB even on a large budget. I binge watched it using two different postings on YT to cross reference the Eng subs and I tell you: this was much closer to the original novel than PoB from March 2025. And it actually has a better understanding of what the original characters were like.
1 excellent novel adaptation
2 awesome acting and directing,
3 killer editing and overall dramatic effect.
1 Almost everything here is how it was in the novel-of course scaled down to what matters. We don't get extensive background of the story like in the book and no massive dump of who is who at the start but editing of the short flashbacks is done so well, you are right away swept by 1st life tragedy of the Xiao Qiao, FL, killed by her emperor husband Liu Yan, when Wei Shao, ML, storms the palace taking the country from the worthless ruler. We know she got "reincarnated" but in the 2nd life she was married off to the ML instead of her sister and we know that there is a blood feud going on between the Wei and Xiao families (ML's father and brother died because of Xiao clan's betrayal). But granny Wei arranged for the marriage between the families to heal both. And the story here follows the book closely, while dismissing minor plots that would have taken too much time in the micro-drama, but leaving the elements that make it really clear what kind of relationship Man Man and Zhong Lin had with each other-and boy do they show it! In fact, they show a lot -including that famous scene of the cousin Wei Yan pleasuring himself in front of the mural of the FL he just painted! Ah, VD... less censorship of risqué and naughty.
2 I was wondering what Ceasar Wu was doing in VD, but I tell ya - he is nailing it! Liu Yu Ning was good in his version of ML (if you like to watch a neanderthal being led by nose), but man, Ceasar is literally the Wei Shao I imagined when reading the novel (competent, smart, all in or all out kind of guy, who does not allow anybody to lead him on). Unlike Song Zu Er in PoB (cunning and manipulative from start to end), Yue Yu Ting, does not pretend to be a wilted flower while being clever and scheming; she is just a woman well aware of the past life tragedies and deathly afraid of watching them happen again, hence acting the way she does-even if she detests deception and almost prostituting herself to the enemy. If this was done as a full-length drama with both leads and by the same crew - I would be much happier with it than with the Prisoner of Beauty released earlier this year. Even secondary characters were casted well here. And although I am still in love with Liu Duan Duan as the long version cousin, the one here is good, as is the ambitious widow. Too bad there are no names listed here for all the cast and crew.
3 I loved how director was able to condense whole chapters in one scene and to show exactly what we needed to see to get a gist of the character, situation or the problem. We get less than 3 minutes of FL's flashback and reaction to the news of former flame of the ML plus Su E Huang's short exchange with ML topped with her inner commentary on what she wants and voila - we know what to expect of Yu Lou. One sentence overheard by someone plus the look on their faces and their thought or flashback and voila-we completely understand what comes next. And the whole set up with sister and the stable boy? We did not need it as long as both FL's sister and her spouse appeared and there was a clash between ML and Bi Zhi. Same thing with the goofy mother of the ML and poisoning of the grandmother: short, to the point, done! Yea, there were some liberties with details, but not so drastic as to change the tone of the story like in PoB the drama - this was done consistently and with a plan to yield satisfying delivery of the main characters' story. I do wish MDL listed the director and screenwriter along with secondary actors so I could follow them in the future.
I will be honest: after reading the novel I really wanted to see what could be done on screen with such a violent character of the ML and underwhelming FL I read about. After watching Prisoner of Beauty this spring (which I rated 8/10 mostly because it was a completely different characterization of the leads than that in the novel but decent nevertheless in its own right, although I disliked the deceptive FL and bumbling brute of ML) I came across this. Someone said it was low budget PoB but I have to say this is better than PoB even on a large budget. I binge watched it using two different postings on YT to cross reference the Eng subs and I tell you: this was much closer to the original novel than PoB from March 2025. And it actually has a better understanding of what the original characters were like.
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