TTR - The Truth Review

Did the female lead even like the male lead at all?

I didn’t really like this drama. Spoiled rich kid slums it in the countryside with a chef and her rundown restaurant. The premise is okay, but I was quickly disappointed with how rude the female lead was to the male lead. It was okay up to a certain point, but it happened from the beginning to the end of this drama. Where she was gentle and demure with the second male lead she was rude, violent, insulting and looked down on the male lead for pretty much the entirety of the drama.. the Mum was diabolical and faced no accountability or self reflected on her behaviour. The brother was pretty horrendous but at least he grew a conscience by the end. The side characters were all meh! and I have to ask the question if the FL even liked the ML at all. He was smitten and she just looked like she settled. The whole thing left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

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Female lead is annoying from the beginning to the end

This is a weird one because it’s a pile of rubbish, but it’s not a complete shambles.

FL and ML were in a virtual reality game but I don’t think the FL realised the ML was real?????? But I’m not really sure. A bit confusing.

Anyway, the female lead was wilful and stubborn to put it politely. I think her objective was to get a divorce letter from the ML and his objective in the game was to win her heart.??? But I’m not really sure.

The palace intrigued stuff was quite interesting, but I was a bit annoyed at the female lead and her ridiculous antics for me to enjoy that side of the story.

They’re 24 episodes at approximately 8 minutes each so you can get through it quite quickly and easily forget.

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I HATE THIS SHOW!

Great cast, nice story but the nuance and execution was diabolical.

The moral of the story is to lie, manipulate, lie, deceive, lie and stalk your love interest until your hearts content and you will succeed in life.

There are 35 episodes at approximately 45 minutes and all we get is the female lead deceiving and manipulating the male lead for most of the show and we don’t know why he allowed it all. Female lead boss was doing the exact same thing to the female lead best friend.

Annoying, annoying, annoying.

We had an irrelevant love rival who was just taking up space and by episode 10 I was done and was fast forwarding as much as possible. The whole thing is not cute or sweet but disturbing that this is regarded as entertainment. Yuck.!

The only good thing was the fl best friend watching go-go squid throughout the first half, which was quite funny. We had this weird villain girl plotting and scheming, but the whole thing was very meh!
We even had this bizarre portion where gangsters were trying to make money from the conservation site by stealing some rare birds. Surely gangsters can find easier ways of making money rather than this very niche and specialised area *I say while laughing out loud* Funny!

The whole thing is so problematic, I’d be here all day listing the issues. Avoid this at all costs.

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After 41 episodes approximately 45 minutes each, I still don’t know what game they were playing

This was a tricky one to score because while it was a lovely story with a decent cast and okay acting overall I have to say it is average.

Some of the reviews on here are spot on because I didn’t really buy the chemistry between the leads and it annoyed me how the female lead lacked communication skills when everybody was badmouthing the male lead when all he was doing was saving her from embarrassment.
All she had to say was
“actually mum, I pursued him relentlessly and everything he’s done and said is to save me embarrassment”
then everything would’ve been fine.

The story lagged midway and was a bit boring and while I enjoy nationalism, it was a little OTT.

I’ve realised there’s a go-go squid 2 because I was trying so hard to work out what the hell was going on with male leads cousin as he was just there without any purpose or depth.

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The worst ML and FL in history???

Update: 23/06/2025: The actors are fantastic but were poorly written. No scores have been changed and I knew my reviews were authentic because I gave the actors a decent rating.

So this is another one of these messes from these Chinese drama people that tells the story of a rich spoilt, psychotic brat of a male lead being able to do any nasty and vile thing he wants to our female lead knowing that they will end up with their happy ever after. Know your place girl.

Mr Grabby ml is completely psychotic, and stalkerish and our female lead is a total pushover who clearly enjoys making bad decisions for her life. She loves a toxic, damaging relationship..

Every single character in this pile of rubbish is the worst.

From demented MLs mom who loves to slap the FL. To the SFL who also loves to slap our female lead but also causes her to miscarriage.

Before you know it, FL and mother-in-law become best friends and she’s supportive of the relationship.
Never mind the fact that she engineered SML‘s grudge against the gu family.

Our FL never once gives SML the benefit of the doubt and was always supportive of the nasty, vindictive and grabby ML.

I realised I must’ve watched this when this was released but dropped it after eight episodes. I managed to fast forward through most of it this time to get to the end and I realised why I dropped it..

Total rubbish!

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Get rid of Jiang Yunqing early doors!

24 episodes approximately 40 mins each.

The first 16 episodes I thought this was going to be a strong 8 because it was fantastic. Funny, not too much political intrigue and an excellent story. I really liked the Emperor and he had some gravitas for the role he was playing. He was smart, righteous and a real benevolent leader.

Even 20 episodes in I was still thinking this could be around about 4 rating.

Then it became a complete and utter shambles.

I can forgive you for billing it as a romance when the love interests barely have any screen time together when it’s actually more of a bromance drama, I can even probably forgive the terrible production, including the loud music which drowned out the dialogue at times.

But what I can’t forgive is constantly letting the villains off because you want peace but EVERY… SINGLE… TIME…. They go back to plotting and scheming how to kill everybody.

And what were we left with? Most of their friends and families got killed by the end episode war and even Yue Chi just stood there while the fake princess stabbed him and tried to blow everything up.

She was then allowed to just jump off the building to her death and that was that…… hmmm!

The white haired prince then turns around to our hero and says, “actually we are the same and have the same goals. I’m good now and will look after my people.”

Okay dokey then. Sigh!

It ended up being a complete farce and became really unwatchable.

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Where is season two?

I’ve just finished watching this in 2025.

31 episodes at 10 minutes each and I was still bored for most of it.

Episode 16 to 18 was a complete mess. Why didn’t our female lead just tell our male lead that it was wheelchair boy who was the big bad villain when she was arrested? Instead, she just screamed that it was all a misunderstanding and she needed to explain.

The writing choices in the show were atrocious. I get it in low budget, but does that mean we can’t have a decent story?

The only good thing out of this was the male lead who definitely has something. I don’t know if it’s the X factor or stage presence but he was the only one I was convinced of that had some level of talent and acting skills.

I knew that by the time we got to episode 29 the ending was gonna be a disaster because there was way too much to be done to cover in 20 minutes of two episodes.

Turns out it was a set up for a second season, but I’m not surprised it hasn’t got one because it was total rubbish.

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This is not a romance and quite disappointing despite the happy ending

There are eight episodes under 45 minutes, but it’s still felt like it dragged on.
The female lead can’t stare at people in the eye and the male lead is allergic to touching people. They meet and the female lead literally can’t stand the male lead though he appears indifferent but not nearly as dismissive as her.. anyway they realise they have feelings and end up together. the end.
The problem with this show is they made the female lead act as though she was mentally retarded because she couldn’t stare at people in the eyes. They had her twitching and shaking and hiding. It just looked ridiculous.. though the male lead had his own quirks like carrying around a suitcase with several different shirts to change into, he was generally calm and his demeanour never looked stressed. She had an unrequited crush on the mail leads best friendbecause it was a mistaken identity but I didn’t like the fact that until the last episode is when we saw her actually showing affection towards the male lead. He’d been stepping closer to her every single opportunity for her to actually just be mean and a bit cruel at points. I wasn’t really rooting for her and her redemption, growth appeared to be negligible. The corporate intrigue was a bit flimsy and not well thought out but I suppose that’s what you get for such a short series even though as I said it did seem to drag and I was pleased when it ended.

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The horrific sickness and diabolical perversion of this drama has left me deeply disturbed

Utterly Horrendous and horrific. On IQIYL it is classed as a romance but this is absolutely a horror sprinkled with inhumane torture and abuse for the female lead throughout.
They’ve already established in the first couple of episodes how horrifically and brutally she was tortured showing us her being beaten to a bloody pulp with open wounds and even losing an eye with blood gushing out and even showing her mum getting thrown off a building and slamming into a parked car to her death. Yet we barely saw the villains get laid a finger on and when they did demise it was short and sharp and quick without any suffering while for 98% of the drama, they were still standing on the female leads neck for most of it.. this can’t be just a cultural thing, it can’t be due to censorship regulations and guidelines because you are more than happy to show us the horrific torture the FL was getting uncensored yet you didn’t really wanna show the villains getting their comeuppance. I really don’t understand. It’s as if the writers just decided that they’re gonna stop pretending to have a moral code because what they want is deeply horrific, physical and emotional abuse to be inflicted on the good guys with little or no accountability for the villains.. and it can’t be just to get clicks and it can’t just be lazy writing. is this something in the psyche of the Chinese? content like this has such massive audiences and are popular. Serious questions need to be asked about this kind of content because all it would do is desensitise Chinese people into the horrors of these horrific crimes and make people believe this is part of the norm. It’s frankly disgusting..

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Face swap and ridiculous heroic sacrifice tropes

18 episodes at about 10 minutes each and I was still annoyed. The FL was tricked and ended up having her face swapped with the main villain who was to be married to the general, but the main villain was in love with the Crown Prince who was an evil so an so. Then we began this ridiculous. Will she tell him the truth about her identity which seemed to go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Then came the big twist by the end that her sister was actually the one who was planning all of the FL’s misfortune because she wanted to secure the Crown Prince position for her lover. It really was quite annoying and I’m glad I ended up getting through it quite quickly with the fast forward button even though as I’ve already said there was only 18 episodes at about 10 minutes each..

The other thing that bothered me with this kind of trope is that we’d already established that the FL was the villain before the face swap so it was really hard for me to root for her no matter how nice she was to all the servants, maids and guards at the general’s mansion.

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What was the point?

So this one episode was 24 minutes long and I wasn’t expecting much and it truly delivered on that.

We got a little bit of resolution from a couple of the couples and the other side characters who are all planning to do their best and work hard, et cetera, et cetera.

However…………

FL still hasn’t bothered to tell the ML that she’s got a job in her hometown and is utterly burying her head in the sand when he’s given her ample opportunity to tell him herself.

When she eventually does, we get this weird, poetic monologue from both of them that doesn’t make any sense and they’re standing at the top of the Lighthouse watching the sea as the credits role.

What a waste of time.

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For a sequel to hidden love it was a lot harder. Watch.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it and I really wanted to.

The cast is fantastic. The story is amazing as it’s essentially a sequel to my favourite hidden Love.. would’ve been nice if it was the same cast however I understand the reasons for the change.

Though it was good, it was excruciatingly slow moving.

At times I was frustrated by her lack of communication, even though I knew the reasons why it was like pulling teeth watching her squirm and not say anything.

I didn’t like her reasons for leaving and breaking the man she loves heart.

The FL mother was a total disgrace and I’m glad they didn’t try and do some weird redemption arc for her after she abandoned her when she was nearly raped by her sister-in-law‘s son. She would have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life and I felt a sense of satisfaction with that.

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A GCSE Drama Project with an Unlimited Budget

If you’re coming from the strategic brilliance and high-stakes tension of The Prisoner of Beauty, prepare yourself for a massive case of tonal whiplash. I desperately wanted to like this—the lead actors are charming, and the production values are surprisingly polished—but no amount of pretty costumes can mask what is fundamentally a rotten, logic-free script.
The show is a complete parody of itself, yet it lacks the self-awareness to actually be clever. We are served a relentless cycle of "misery porn" where the Emperor and Empress spend thirty episodes being passive door mats. The power dynamic is frankly ridiculous; watching an Emperor act like a helpless puppet while the Empress Dowager and Prince Duan treat the palace like their own personal playground is route-one nonsense.
The writing is strictly GCSE-level. Villains like Prince Duan don't win through tactical genius; they win through "teleportation" logic and literal plot armour. He can stroll into the inner palace for a chat whenever he fancies it, yet the moment our leads try to show an ounce of spine, they’re shackled by "filial piety" or "system" rules that only seem to apply to the heroes.
Then there is the insufferable "pandering." Watching the Female Lead "kiss the arse" of the villainous consort—a character who is a pouty, spoiled brat with a body count—is bizarre. The show tries to hide behind the meta-excuse that she’s "not a real person" to justify the FL acting like a spineless nanny. It completely kills any sense of immersion or stakes.
Even the finale is a shambles. After all the treachery and attempted murders, the wicked consorts are handed "happy endings" and travel funds like they’re off on a girls' holiday, rather than a one-way trip to the executioner. It wraps up with a forced "women’s empowerment" speech at a burial site that feels like a LinkedIn seminar dropped into a massacre.
I’ve given it 3.5 stars solely because the actors did their best with the absolute drivel they were handed. If you enjoy watching a show at 2x speed just to see the "Checkmate" (which is ultimately unsatisfying), then go ahead. Otherwise, don't let the high production values fool you—this is brainless drama at its most frustrating.

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The Prisoner of Beauty: A solid 9/10 Masterclass in Strategic Romance and Lethal Chemistry

The Prisoner of Beauty is a visual powerhouse, anchored by the electric, slow-burn chemistry between the FL and the ML. It masterfully balances high-stakes political maneuvering with an "enemies-to-lovers" arc that keeps you hooked from the first episode. However, it misses a perfect score due to two glaring issues:
I was frustrated at times by the FLs Logic. While brilliant, man-man’s decision-making is often two-dimensional. Her refusal to trust Wei Shao led to the "heart shield" fiasco and, more critically, her concealment of the secret tunnel (the Zuihou path). By keeping this "safety net" for the Qiao clan a secret, she ironically handed the enemy, Liu Yan, a literal back door to slaughter her husband’s forces. Seeing her cry in Episode 30 because she sent him to fight a war she helped sabotage was the ultimate "accountability" moment she earned.
The other small grip I have is the anticlimactic Villain Deaths.
After episodes of meticulous buildup, the antagonists are dispatched with jarring speed. Su Ehuang’s manipulative "brother’s widow" shield eventually shatters, but her end feels rushed. Similarly, the obsessed Liu Yan and the slimy Qiao Yue—who survived far longer than their IQs should have allowed—met their fates so quickly that the payoff felt hollow compared to the 30+ episodes of stress they caused.
Despite these gripes, the production value and the lead performances make this a must-watch. The side characters were all compelling and there’s lots of emotional moments.

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