Definitely worth the watch, but could've been a few episodes shorter
If you like romance costume dramas with all the typical tropes, you should enjoy The Rise of Ning. I really enjoyed it despite its flaws. And really by flaws I am only referring to the character Lu Jiaxue, but more on that later.
Standouts for me were Zhang Wan Yi (because of course) and Zhang Yao. Honorable mention to Huang Meng.
WheneverZhang Yao was on screen, I was entirely captivated by her elegance. I thought she was the best actor (actress) in the entire show. I don't know how Chinese awards work, but I felt like she deserves a nomination for this role. She was perfect in every scene from her expressions to her mannerisms to how she delivered her lines.
The chemistry between Yining and Shenyuan was great, despite some annoyance I had with Yining. Watching him fall in love with her was delightful and I wish the romance had more time to truly develop. How she never really showed any romantic feelings towards him until way later made her seem so naive, and that is not who she is for any other part of the show. The way it is, it was like 35 episodes of him falling in love with her, and her just being the best sister ever, then a few episodes of romance with of course all kinds of trauma and chaos and finally a happy ending. There was so much more potential that could have developed between them as a couple.
Ci Sha's Lu Jiaxue was ultimately a very pitiful character. I feel like they tried to make us sympathize with him far too much, and maybe I could have if his arc hadn't lasted so long. Honestly, it took up far too much of the show. The saving grace is how easy on the eyes he is, but I still really ended up hating his character only because there was too much of him. I did not feel like there was a good balance between his evilness and his (delusional) love for Yining. Every time he came on screen I thought "here we go again" and frankly, I had that too many times.
A bit of the inner harem drama was unnecessary but what is a costume drama without it? Still, it isn't one of my favorite aspects of the shows. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with them.
Also shoutout to the romance between Lin Mao and Luo Yixie. They were absolutely adorable and were so fun to watch.
I truly appreciated the homage to The Story of Ming Lan. I thought it was done very well, but I will admit at the beginning that I was a bit turned off thinking I was going to be watching essentially a remake. Fortunately, this is not that, and in my opinion it worked very well.
Give it a watch. I think it was worth my time.
Standouts for me were Zhang Wan Yi (because of course) and Zhang Yao. Honorable mention to Huang Meng.
WheneverZhang Yao was on screen, I was entirely captivated by her elegance. I thought she was the best actor (actress) in the entire show. I don't know how Chinese awards work, but I felt like she deserves a nomination for this role. She was perfect in every scene from her expressions to her mannerisms to how she delivered her lines.
The chemistry between Yining and Shenyuan was great, despite some annoyance I had with Yining. Watching him fall in love with her was delightful and I wish the romance had more time to truly develop. How she never really showed any romantic feelings towards him until way later made her seem so naive, and that is not who she is for any other part of the show. The way it is, it was like 35 episodes of him falling in love with her, and her just being the best sister ever, then a few episodes of romance with of course all kinds of trauma and chaos and finally a happy ending. There was so much more potential that could have developed between them as a couple.
Ci Sha's Lu Jiaxue was ultimately a very pitiful character. I feel like they tried to make us sympathize with him far too much, and maybe I could have if his arc hadn't lasted so long. Honestly, it took up far too much of the show. The saving grace is how easy on the eyes he is, but I still really ended up hating his character only because there was too much of him. I did not feel like there was a good balance between his evilness and his (delusional) love for Yining. Every time he came on screen I thought "here we go again" and frankly, I had that too many times.
A bit of the inner harem drama was unnecessary but what is a costume drama without it? Still, it isn't one of my favorite aspects of the shows. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with them.
Also shoutout to the romance between Lin Mao and Luo Yixie. They were absolutely adorable and were so fun to watch.
I truly appreciated the homage to The Story of Ming Lan. I thought it was done very well, but I will admit at the beginning that I was a bit turned off thinking I was going to be watching essentially a remake. Fortunately, this is not that, and in my opinion it worked very well.
Give it a watch. I think it was worth my time.
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