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Tireless Theatrics and Beautiful Visuals with a Mix of Slow-burn Romance and Underwhelming Plot
I honestly have mixed feelings about this drama. I found the starting and ending rather underwhelming but there was a huge chunk of the drama which I enjoyed so much. There were days when I loved it with my everything but also times when even 1.5x speed wasn’t fast enough to get me through the mind-numbing story.
The premise of this drama is simple and unoriginal but among the sea of rebirth tropes, Blossoms of Power tries a little something different. Instead of Gu Qingzhi’s soul taking over Xihe’s body, in the event of a rare celestial phenomenon when Xihe has a close brush with death - Gu Qingzhi and Shen Xihe’s souls integrate together to form a third entity who possess both of their skills and memories. At first, it seems a little more than a censorship to make marrying her brother-in-law seem less awkward since the new Xihe absorbs all the personality and traits of Qingzhi, and Xihe’s memories just serves as a convenient perk but as the story progresses, you can feel more of Xihe in her carefree and openness and it becomes easier to accept her as a new persona.
Xihe is cunning, decisive and straightforward, she says what she wants outright and is capable of handling any situation on her own. Unlike the regular rebirth plot, her motive is not revenge but a better and secured life. Gu Qingzhi’s life had a closure without regrets, and she completed her revenge with her death so in this new life, her only goal is to have enough power to protect herself and her loved ones and to live a good life. And thus, she looks for a marriage alliance not of love but of mutual trust and aligned goals.
Xiao Huayong is personally in a league of his own and is the single most reason I enjoyed this drama so much. I don’t know about original, but he is such a breadth of fresh air. Huayong is scheming, manipulative, a little delusional, insanely dramatic and cheeky but so incredibly understanding, caring and unapologetically in love. There has never been a man so frail yet formidable and his weaponized coughs and handy fainting techniques are the heart of this drama. Honestly, I cannot praise He Yu enough for embodying Huayong to this level of perfection. Huayong’s scheming mind, his sincere heart, his yearning, his joy and sadness was expressed so beautifully in his eyes and expressions that I could not look away every time he was on screen. Not to mention he looks simply ethereal in this styling.
Both the leads are smart, calculating, evenly matched and so on top of their game that no other character came close to winning. In its core, Blossoms of Power is a romance, even if the romance included Huayong chasing Xihe for the better part of the story, but their strong chemistry and Huayong’s never-ending antics never made me feel tired of their slow progressing romance. I understood Xihe’s caution and appreciated Huayong’s understanding, devotion and love that knew no bounds. And personally, to see them finally together and in love was so worth the wait.
The plot on the other hand seemed very unimpressive to me. The level of uninterest I showed in it was a personal feat for me. I don't know if it’s because I was so invested in the fillers that everything else paled in comparison or the writing and execution was that poor but from the political intrigue to palace drama, the plot felt very shallow that just came and went. There was no suspense, no setbacks and logic took a backseat where frequent assassination attempts and fire breakouts merely served as a momentary spectacle and every hindrance was solved by the FL’s preternatural sense of smell and extraordinary talent in incense-making.
The character writing had better luck as most of the characters had genuinely interesting settings and was refreshing to watch. The second couple was really enjoyable and had good chemistry, and Bu Shulin has to be one of the best cross-dressing in dramas ever. The princes were written rather unconventionally - entangled in their love lives instead of the battle for the throne. And while sometimes a little too much, I appreciated their sincerity and devotion to their partners since it's something we rarely see in dramas. Other supporting characters were also refreshingly different but unfortunately weren’t developed enough. Their backstories and development were messy and lacking which made them hard to connect to. Even their deaths felt more anticlimactic than sad because despite the decent emotional setting, there was little buildup leading to it.
Visually, it was really beautiful. The production, the cinematography, the costumes and the styling was absolutely stunning and really pleasing to watch. The osts were also really good and I absolutely loved Zhou Shen’s Bustling Mortal World which made the story so much more beautiful to me.
Overall, I really did love this drama a lot even if I wish I could’ve enjoyed it a little more. Blossoms of Power has a lot of flaws, from the shaky pacing to underwhelming plot so I probably wouldn't recommend it for its politics and plot but for the romance and Huayong’s tireless theatrics, this drama was so worth it and I absolutely do not regret watching it.
The premise of this drama is simple and unoriginal but among the sea of rebirth tropes, Blossoms of Power tries a little something different. Instead of Gu Qingzhi’s soul taking over Xihe’s body, in the event of a rare celestial phenomenon when Xihe has a close brush with death - Gu Qingzhi and Shen Xihe’s souls integrate together to form a third entity who possess both of their skills and memories. At first, it seems a little more than a censorship to make marrying her brother-in-law seem less awkward since the new Xihe absorbs all the personality and traits of Qingzhi, and Xihe’s memories just serves as a convenient perk but as the story progresses, you can feel more of Xihe in her carefree and openness and it becomes easier to accept her as a new persona.
Xihe is cunning, decisive and straightforward, she says what she wants outright and is capable of handling any situation on her own. Unlike the regular rebirth plot, her motive is not revenge but a better and secured life. Gu Qingzhi’s life had a closure without regrets, and she completed her revenge with her death so in this new life, her only goal is to have enough power to protect herself and her loved ones and to live a good life. And thus, she looks for a marriage alliance not of love but of mutual trust and aligned goals.
Xiao Huayong is personally in a league of his own and is the single most reason I enjoyed this drama so much. I don’t know about original, but he is such a breadth of fresh air. Huayong is scheming, manipulative, a little delusional, insanely dramatic and cheeky but so incredibly understanding, caring and unapologetically in love. There has never been a man so frail yet formidable and his weaponized coughs and handy fainting techniques are the heart of this drama. Honestly, I cannot praise He Yu enough for embodying Huayong to this level of perfection. Huayong’s scheming mind, his sincere heart, his yearning, his joy and sadness was expressed so beautifully in his eyes and expressions that I could not look away every time he was on screen. Not to mention he looks simply ethereal in this styling.
Both the leads are smart, calculating, evenly matched and so on top of their game that no other character came close to winning. In its core, Blossoms of Power is a romance, even if the romance included Huayong chasing Xihe for the better part of the story, but their strong chemistry and Huayong’s never-ending antics never made me feel tired of their slow progressing romance. I understood Xihe’s caution and appreciated Huayong’s understanding, devotion and love that knew no bounds. And personally, to see them finally together and in love was so worth the wait.
The plot on the other hand seemed very unimpressive to me. The level of uninterest I showed in it was a personal feat for me. I don't know if it’s because I was so invested in the fillers that everything else paled in comparison or the writing and execution was that poor but from the political intrigue to palace drama, the plot felt very shallow that just came and went. There was no suspense, no setbacks and logic took a backseat where frequent assassination attempts and fire breakouts merely served as a momentary spectacle and every hindrance was solved by the FL’s preternatural sense of smell and extraordinary talent in incense-making.
The character writing had better luck as most of the characters had genuinely interesting settings and was refreshing to watch. The second couple was really enjoyable and had good chemistry, and Bu Shulin has to be one of the best cross-dressing in dramas ever. The princes were written rather unconventionally - entangled in their love lives instead of the battle for the throne. And while sometimes a little too much, I appreciated their sincerity and devotion to their partners since it's something we rarely see in dramas. Other supporting characters were also refreshingly different but unfortunately weren’t developed enough. Their backstories and development were messy and lacking which made them hard to connect to. Even their deaths felt more anticlimactic than sad because despite the decent emotional setting, there was little buildup leading to it.
Visually, it was really beautiful. The production, the cinematography, the costumes and the styling was absolutely stunning and really pleasing to watch. The osts were also really good and I absolutely loved Zhou Shen’s Bustling Mortal World which made the story so much more beautiful to me.
Overall, I really did love this drama a lot even if I wish I could’ve enjoyed it a little more. Blossoms of Power has a lot of flaws, from the shaky pacing to underwhelming plot so I probably wouldn't recommend it for its politics and plot but for the romance and Huayong’s tireless theatrics, this drama was so worth it and I absolutely do not regret watching it.
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