Nongkram

It really wasn't easy to watch ML prevent FL from taking revenge. You think, “Just kill your family's arch enemy, woman.” But in that moment, you forget that she would have wiped out her own branch of the family. Her murdered parents would not only expect her to take revenge, but also to continue their family line and restore the family to its former power. And for that, Li Pei Yi needs benevolent, balancing people around her who support her and help her overcome her self-destructive weaknesses that would lead her and her branch of the family into the oblivion of history.

An exciting drama with good actors; the reversal role is exaggerated. Both households of the main leads are toxic, with no room for a loving family life. FL loves ML, but won't let any man come between her and her family business and would be happy to raise their child alone. The ultimate test came at the end, when she let him decide whether to stay in his own household with a very dangerous woman or to choose a life close to her household.

Finally, another clever Chinese drama with good actors. It stands out refreshingly from the same old hackneyed patterns that hordes of uninspired screenwriters with good connections keep churning out. It also has some good lessons for life without coming across as preachy. Patriarchal or matriarchal family structures based on fear are doomed to failure; those who were treated unfairly as children will never forget it for the rest of their lives.

The current average rating is ridiculously low and very strange for such a fantastic drama. The fate of samurai during the modernization period is also described in the currently running drama The Ghost Writer's Wife, but of course in a different way. Kiyohara Kaya is once again superb as Kinugasa Iroha. I first noticed her as the lead actress in Hotarugusa, also a samurai drama.

The social upheaval amid the tensions of industrialisation is saddening. The proud samurai are betrayed, taken advantage of and looked down upon by shrewd businessmen who have jumped on the bandwagon of modernisation and unfair business practices. On the other hand, a love story between a middle-aged Westerner and a proud samurai daughter would have been even more unlikely at the height of the samurai era than between Matsuno Toki aka Koizumi Setsu and Lefcada Heaven aka Lafcadio Hearn. Great drama up to and including episode 29, I'm excited to see how it continues. I hope there will be 60-minute episodes with professional translation so that the subtleties of the language in the social context can also be understood.

Setsu was in fact a true samurai’s daughter, born in 1868 into the Matsue domain’s prominent Koizumi clan. However, in the social upheaval at the start of the Meiji era (1868–1912), after the shogunate had fallen, many Matsue samurai families went into decline. Setsu, who was one of many Koizumi children, was adopted by relatives called Inagaki shortly after her birth. Competitive and hard-working, she excelled at school, but the family’s financial situation forced her to cut her education short and bring money into the family through weaving. This is how she developed her sturdy body. It was poverty that brought her together with Hearn, as her first husband, also adopted into the Inagaki family, could not bear the economic hardships and ran away. After her divorce, Setsu returned to the Koizumi family. With the continued need to provide money, despite worries about being looked down on, she saw no choice but to become a live-in maid at Hearn’s house.

Here is some more information about Toki/Koizumi Setsu's adoptive parents/birth parents and her first husband. Associate professor at the University of Shimane Minari Sayaka:

I am truly sorry for how disrespectfully the people who bring us so much joy with the subs were treated. I was unaware of the background to this.

The drama not only deals with an extraordinary love story, but also explores in detail the period when the samurai era came to an end and was replaced by a modern industrial society. Even in the first two episodes, you can sense how much care and passion went into it; the actors are superb, with Fukuchi Miharu as Matsuno Toki as a child standing out so far.

Thank you very much!

I was so looking forward to this drama and the first episodes were great, thought the FL was really good. Too bad the poisoning scene is so poorly written, it could be a parody. Not only does it degrade the FL to an idiot who fatally poisons her husband before she has cleared up her own last doubts about whether he really murdered her father or not, but you also have to deal with a stupid slimeball character more.

Fun drama by a young female director, until episode 8 I don't see any harem drama, just two women more or less interested in the ML. In most dramas there are also several men interested in the FL.

This socially and socio-critical, timeless drama is a unique character study across society wrapped up in a crazy story. Unfortunately, not all of the important characters are addressed at the end (perhaps time was of the essence or production costs were capped). Still a solid 8.5 plus fun factor, uniqueness, story, actors and vibes = 9

This unusual drama deals with people and their life stories, with a pinch of realism and humor. You can't help but root for Li Shan De and his daughter. The characters are multi-layered and not easy to categorize as good or evil. The powerful women are beautifully styled in a traditional way and the lives of ordinary people, powerful officials and rich merchants are interwoven.

Great drama! What I found very strange and couldn't place; why didn't Zang Hai's father reveal the secret but let himself and his family be massacred for it. I just thought give up the seal and save your family. There needs to be a resolution to this bizarre behaviour so that Zang Hai's father isn't seen as a person with no empathy for his own family.

An exciting and visually stunning drama with good actors. I like that the main leads are vulnerable and yet so strong. The two form a power couple, and once they are firmly together they are almost unstoppable...

Dear Hongrang was exactly what I needed last weekend. Exciting and a bit dark. The actors are great anyway. They should have shown Jae I with Hongrang's child! I give it a 9 because the drama's atmosphere is worth at least half a point.

What it means when the two main leads are psychopaths with two different subtypes is a tightrope walk for a drama. A relationship with a psychopath would be a psychological and, in the worst case, fatal ordeal for emphatic people such as Seo Yeong Ju. The actors express this callousness towards other lives masterfully. Screenwriter Kim Sun Hee is aware that she needs to give viewers a sympathetic line for the main leads and does it skillfully with killings that so far have randomly hit people who are a burden to an emphatic society. Other dramas make the mistake of conveying the absurdity that a psychopath can develop feelings for a partner through love. I'm looking forward to the new episodes.

Like the older, loving sister who can only smile wearily at the foolishness of her younger siblings.

Lol...the attempted rapist Zhao Xiu Yuan has captured the imagination of some and their hearts, as can be inferred from some of the comments.