This review may contain spoilers
Not Glorious Enough!
A plot with a matriarchal set up where every family member is cunning and scheming against each other,Hou Minghao as the male lead as an imperial magistrate who is amnesiac, saved by the female lead..... sounds really interesting.
Well...it was interesting as it began. Introduction of the characters, the world building,Rong family and their heritage,the inner conflicts among the sisters,Rong Shanbao and her commanding personality, Lu Jianglai and his ruthless aura...everything was mesmerizing.
But the problem began soon,where the story started to fall apart in the midway and started to feel like some scattered pieces of story glued together only to show how great Rong family is when the actual problem lies within themselves.
Rong Shanbao,as the female lead and the next main lady of Rong family after her grandma is someone who is extremely cunning,smart,who has dealt with the family tea business since she was 13. She is a powerful woman with impaccable aura. But the problem is,her power comes from her extremely cold personality, her cunning emotionless manipulative mind. She is not some saint,she also schemes behind others back. But when Lu Jianglai came to her life and their relationship began,thats where the problem started. Her continuous toying around with him,never confessing her love when he already did multiple times,never communicating her thoughts or plans with him......everything made the relationship extremely frustrating. She used him whenever she wanted (and ofcourse he let her), and the next scene she is acting like he's a nobody in her life.... This thing was constant the whole drama. Its a matriarchal set up so the power dynamics is reversed.....but whenever Lu Jianglai stood up for himself and told her hypocrisy on her face,either a kiss or slap on the cheek was her answer to everything.She never put him as her priority, never. Its always either her work or her family or something else. Her cold demeanour with expressionless face and never warming up with Lu Jianglai was'nt helping at all. Idk if it was the script or the actress,she didn’t had to do much in terms of expression cause she only had two or three expressions the whole time.
Hou Minghao didn’t disappoint as always.Lu Jianglai started real good as a fearless ruthless imperial magistrate.... And as Lu Fusheng,he was also good. But the way all that aura and everything was gone in later episodes was really something. He just remained as a lovesick puppy,only asking for Rong Shanbao's love in every situation,helping her,saving her...when Rong Shanbao just kept using him or planning without any sort of communication with him. Their relationship felt dull...sometimes forced with no destination. Even when the dynamics are reversed,there should be a balance,this drama fell short in this aspect.
Storywise...it was good at the beginning. Sisters are sworn enemies, all scheming, plotting but failing in front of Shanbao was enjoyable. Later they all got their deserved ending,some learned their lessons and some found love. It was good to see.
But the real headache was the Grandma. God knows how such selfish and dumb woman was the head of such so called great family. She just kept blabbering about their heritage, pride and whatnot but never tried to understand her grand daughters,not a single one. Shanbao,Yunxi,Yunin,Yunshu.......all were heavily misunderstood, misguided by her prejudiced mind and were led to take wrong steps. And she had no remorse of it,its always others fault,not her. The way she didn’t even take a second to dethrone Shanbao just because she didn’t agree with her and immediately took Yunshu as her next favourite really mademe question her sanity. Its surprising how and why Rong family members still kept obeying her. No wonder Shanbao turned out to be a ice queen in terms of emotions.
Overall....it was nice to watch something different, women with real power. The costumes were gorgeous,so was the set. The scenerios with the tea garden on the hills were really eye pleasing. Its just the storytelling became frustrating at some point, seemed like they didn’t know where to land it.
Well...it was interesting as it began. Introduction of the characters, the world building,Rong family and their heritage,the inner conflicts among the sisters,Rong Shanbao and her commanding personality, Lu Jianglai and his ruthless aura...everything was mesmerizing.
But the problem began soon,where the story started to fall apart in the midway and started to feel like some scattered pieces of story glued together only to show how great Rong family is when the actual problem lies within themselves.
Rong Shanbao,as the female lead and the next main lady of Rong family after her grandma is someone who is extremely cunning,smart,who has dealt with the family tea business since she was 13. She is a powerful woman with impaccable aura. But the problem is,her power comes from her extremely cold personality, her cunning emotionless manipulative mind. She is not some saint,she also schemes behind others back. But when Lu Jianglai came to her life and their relationship began,thats where the problem started. Her continuous toying around with him,never confessing her love when he already did multiple times,never communicating her thoughts or plans with him......everything made the relationship extremely frustrating. She used him whenever she wanted (and ofcourse he let her), and the next scene she is acting like he's a nobody in her life.... This thing was constant the whole drama. Its a matriarchal set up so the power dynamics is reversed.....but whenever Lu Jianglai stood up for himself and told her hypocrisy on her face,either a kiss or slap on the cheek was her answer to everything.She never put him as her priority, never. Its always either her work or her family or something else. Her cold demeanour with expressionless face and never warming up with Lu Jianglai was'nt helping at all. Idk if it was the script or the actress,she didn’t had to do much in terms of expression cause she only had two or three expressions the whole time.
Hou Minghao didn’t disappoint as always.Lu Jianglai started real good as a fearless ruthless imperial magistrate.... And as Lu Fusheng,he was also good. But the way all that aura and everything was gone in later episodes was really something. He just remained as a lovesick puppy,only asking for Rong Shanbao's love in every situation,helping her,saving her...when Rong Shanbao just kept using him or planning without any sort of communication with him. Their relationship felt dull...sometimes forced with no destination. Even when the dynamics are reversed,there should be a balance,this drama fell short in this aspect.
Storywise...it was good at the beginning. Sisters are sworn enemies, all scheming, plotting but failing in front of Shanbao was enjoyable. Later they all got their deserved ending,some learned their lessons and some found love. It was good to see.
But the real headache was the Grandma. God knows how such selfish and dumb woman was the head of such so called great family. She just kept blabbering about their heritage, pride and whatnot but never tried to understand her grand daughters,not a single one. Shanbao,Yunxi,Yunin,Yunshu.......all were heavily misunderstood, misguided by her prejudiced mind and were led to take wrong steps. And she had no remorse of it,its always others fault,not her. The way she didn’t even take a second to dethrone Shanbao just because she didn’t agree with her and immediately took Yunshu as her next favourite really mademe question her sanity. Its surprising how and why Rong family members still kept obeying her. No wonder Shanbao turned out to be a ice queen in terms of emotions.
Overall....it was nice to watch something different, women with real power. The costumes were gorgeous,so was the set. The scenerios with the tea garden on the hills were really eye pleasing. Its just the storytelling became frustrating at some point, seemed like they didn’t know where to land it.
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