Minalapinou

Ooh boy this drama. I thought I was in for a delicious slow-burn romance between a fiery princess and a wounded prince who longs for love, but instead I got endless, boring conspiracies between kingdoms I did not care about and a tedious love rival who refused to go away. I did love it at first (hence the not so terrible 7/10 rating). I love the aesthetic of this drama, very poetic and fairy-tale like (the dancing !), and the combats are pretty cool. I fell for Ren Min's energy and I get the fuss about Xiao Zhan. As I love contrasts, I loved their couple visually (I'm in the minority apparently). A shame the show doesn't exploit their playful chemistry, they barely kiss and get together too late. This drama is weirdly paced, dragged by this overly complicated storyline about the war between merfolks and the kongsang clan. Most of it is a set-up for Mirror : A Tale of Twin Cities, and it doesn't fit. Usually in xianxia the big identity secret is about the leads. Here it was about the hero of another show, and it was difficult to care about the underlying plot as a result. The show is also marred by a slough of mediocre secondary characters, like the tepid second prince, his tepid lover, her scheming sister who can't decide if she wants to be good or bad, the lamest evil clan and an exhausting tragic rival, Yuan, who takes way too much place in the plot at the expense of our main couple's story. As Zhu Yan's caretaker and her ancestor's husband it's very hard to take him seriously as a candidate for her affections, and in the end he becomes a walking plot device. What a waste of Wang Chu Ran, Lu Yu Xiao and Alen Fang's talent. The show started very strong, but slowly became a borderline unwatchable mess. It feels like a prequel to a show I don't even want to watch.