Sharlotka

I'm not sure I understand the idea of Prince Duan being a real person of a higher level, as far as being in a book is concerned. How can you be of a higher level than people who are from the outside and could, technically, be familiar with the plot? I suppose they're going to explain it over time but it just left me a little confused.

I decided to give it a try only because of Cheng Lei but I'm really enjoying it so far, much more than I expected. I can't deny that there's something about the dubbing that rubs me the wrong way at times but not to the extent that it would ruin the drama for me, fortunately.

I really like how so far, it looks like the way things are presented in the novel that the FL remembers is not quite what they really are, and there's actually much more going on behind the scenes of the plot. And I really enjoy the lighter tone mixed in with more serious moments.

5 episodes in, I can't help feeling like I wish there was more police work and less personal lives. I'm not against the characters getting personal lives, developed backgrounds, interactions with friends and families but I feel like these work better when they have been established and the viewers had a chance to get to know them, grow to like them, get curious about them. Some parts just feel like watching a slice of life show where the characters just happen to be policemen. Its funny because usually, they focus too much on work and I wish they showed more personal lives of the characters and with this one, it's the exact opposite.

Perhaps it's just me but the captain's glass looks so much like a pitcher that it's a good thing they clarified he drinks tea because for a sec there, I began to wonder if he's seriously just drinking beer at work so openly lol

"It's been years, stop wasting your time" - how about you listen to your own advice? I officially dislike this motorcycle friend. He's not even subtle about treating her like a friend only, I really hope they don't plan to keep this thing going for the whole drama because she's just annoying, period.

I've only watched 1 episode so far but it's definitely an interesting start. I hope it stays this way :)

Out of the three “female general” dramas that aired in 2025 (at least ones that I’m aware of), this is the last one that I had watched. I’ve seen many people compare them to each other and I can’t help feeling that it’s unfair to these titles. Each may have a female general but in my eyes, outside of the obvious similarities that are here for a lot of dramas, not just these three, the plot is too different for them to be compared.

This one has landed on my list for no other reason than the fact that Cheng Lei is part of the cast, but I found it to be a very enjoyable watch. It’s one of the rare dramas where I didn’t find the female lead insufferable at the start; she may have been a little annoying at the start but nothing too bad. I really liked her arc - the determination to prove herself, reclaim what belongs to her, and show the world that she is no worse than men.

I only wish He Rufei wasn’t such a pathetic villain. The actor certainly did a great job with this character, I really enjoyed his performance and expressiveness (which, after seeing him deliver another great performance in “Whispers of Fate”, makes him an actor that I’ll be happy to see in other productions), but the character himself leaves a bit to be desired. Perhaps, if he had anything other than the feeling of entitlement speaking for his motives, it would be different but the way it was, he was a bad villain. Which makes me sad because I usually love my villains.

I also can’t help feeling disappointed by Chu Zhao’s arc. He’s one of the characters I really enjoyed, and I really liked how one couldn’t be entirely certain about which side he really is on most of the time. Him essentially making himself a double agent of sorts was great, and I liked that at the end of the day, he chose to stand against Chancellor Xu because that was what he believed was the right thing to do. And then, they completely ruined him by his rather bad attempt to get He Yan for himself and everything else he did in connection to that. In my eyes, it was a good place for him to understand that she never saw him in that kind of light, accept the friendship that they shared, and move on, possibly with him becoming part of the team and, while not being out there on the battlefield, having his own way to be useful and help as a great official. Instead, they completely ruined it and that’s probably my biggest complaint for this drama. At least they redeemed him a little bit by him understanding his mistakes and at least seeming like he regrets them, but the bad taste remains.

On the flip side, I absolutely loved the four that He Yan hung out with in Yezhou. I loved how they went from undermining her to being among her closest friends and willing to have her back, completely unbothered that she’s a woman. I can’t deny that this reminds me a bit of “Mulan”, but it’s something I really enjoyed in the cartoon, and I would love to have seen more of them and their comradery in this drama. I was hoping they may join He Yan when she was leaving Yezhou to go to Rundu, and I may have squealed in happiness when they did. And they didn’t get killed off like a lot of lovable sidekicks in dramas that I have watched, but actually had gotten their little arc of becoming great soldiers themselves, so that’s another big plus in my eyes.

A great title that I really enjoyed watching and kept me interested pretty much the whole time. Definitely something I can see myself coming back to in the future.

I guess you could say that :) To be fair, I may end up changing my rating in the future, but I wanted to set it to something because I don't like things standing out without rating on my list, they annoy me when they stand out like that. For the time being, I'm leaving it at that and if I change my mind later - I'll probably change the rating :)

I was a bit stuck on what to rate it. In the end, I decided to give it 8.5 because for the most part, I genuinely enjoyed the drama, found the plot interesting, the characters had potential and most of them had personality, and there were some things I really enjoyed and wish we could see in more dramas etc. The things I mentioned in my spoiler comment are really my main complaints here, so it's not like I have a lot of complaints (just a couple bigger ones lol).

I feel like I say it about a lot of dramas but I have such incredibly mixed feelings after finishing this drama.

On one hand, I really liked the way Rong Shanbao was presented as the heiress of her family - recognising that their strength lies in unity and gradually making her sisters see that as well; standing up to her grandmother; even burning down the tree as a kind of symbol of getting rid of the old ways. Especially her attitude towards the elders and tradition was something that I really enjoyed; perhaps because I really disliked the grandmother. Respect towards elders is probably an universal thing, but the grandmother was the perfect example of why it shouldn’t be ‘owed’ but ‘deserved’ and ‘earned’. If one deserves respect, it will come naturally.

At the same time, her attitude towards Lu Jianglai is something I really can’t get behind and a part of me would have preferred not to get a happy ending for them as a couple. I enjoyed the scene when he speaks about how she had been planning to leave from the start, wanted to get rid of him, etc. and if I were to choose, I’d leave him right there - recognising that the way she treated him is not right. I understand that at the beginning of the drama, she was distrustful of him, it makes perfect sense but by the last episode, I’d have expected the relationship to have grown, for trust to be in place, etc. and I don’t see that. Why can’t she just be direct and/or honest with him, instead of constantly hiding things?

That said, the whole capital plot was completely unnecessary in my eyes. I’d rather they had all stayed in Linji, and instead of 5-6 episodes focused on characters that I don’t even care about, I’d rather have gotten those 5-6 episodes focused on showing how the lives settle for other sisters. At least the plot between the 5th sister and the scholar got some kind of closure, and yes I know that they mentioned other sisters, it’s not quite the same as showing these things.

I enjoyed this drama for the most part, some plots more than the others. It definitely had great potential at the start and they used some of it, but also ruined others. I guess you can’t have everything.

I still have 2 episodes to go and Viki is killing me with 1 episode a day, but I can't really see the bigger point of the whole capital plot with Lu Jianglai's biological family. Is that really necessary? If he is to have a happy ending with Rong Shanbao, then I really can't see the point. Unless he is going to end up staying in the capital...

Still, I would rather see more about how things settle down in the Rong family, how the plot for all the sisters is going to end. For me, the only thing this whole capital plot accomplishes so far is showing that Rong Shanbao appears to have no character development in terms of her treatment of Lu Jianglai, and the guy kinda deserves better than how she's treating him...

Viki only has 1 episode today? T___T

Grandma complaining about being deceived and all... As if she was willing to listen to anything anyone had to say that didn't align with her view of things. Perhaps, instead of blaming everyone around, start from looking at yourself.

What was that scene of Lu Jianglai looking terrified? I completely don't understand it...

And Rong Shanbao, what a loving daughter you are towards your father lol I bet there has to be more in the capital plot, I wonder what it's going to be.

I knew the Yan guy was suspicious from the start. And poor real Yan Bailuo. Although, I can't help but love to see everything that annoys the Grandmother lol She is such an unlikeable character... Yunxi deciding to go against her was such an enjoyable scene. I hope we see more scenes like this from other sisters.

I am very pleasantly surprised by the daughter of Lu Jianglai's teacher. I was worried she'll end up being the usual 'poor girl, left all alone, begging the ML to marry her because that was her father's wish' and I'm happy to see she doesn't appear to be that.

I only wonder, how many more secret plots we still have waiting for us lol

I haven't seen 28 either, I watch on Viki and it only has up to 27 right now. I'm not sure what you mean exactly by what happened but unless it's an act too, she's shown what she's really like.

I had a feeling Bai Yingsheng was not actually genuinely working with the Jiang guy, and it's nice to see he was actually working with Rong Shanbao. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to take such a drastic turn. Resentment is one thing but murdering people just to get revenge on a woman is a bit extreme.

The tree burning down was nice, too. I like the symbolism behind it - the old ways of the family being destroyed, and the Rongs turning over a new leaf (pun completely unintended lol).

Looking forward to the confrontation between Lu Jianglai and Rong Shanbao; she really kept him in the dark about her actual plan didn't she lol

So many people are dying left and right, why can't any of the murderers do a favour to everyone and kill the Grandmother... At least FL finally spoke her mind, definitely earned a lot of points with me for that.

I still don't trust Yan Bailuo. Almost 2/3 into the drama, I wonder when we're going to learn his true intentions...

And is the 5th sister actually able to see? Now, that would be an interesting twist.

That's true, it was as if watching a different thing. They went for lots of shooting, explosions and 'action', and completely away from what made this drama truly great. And while in most of the episodes, it looked like they did their best to research things and make them believable, in the final few episodes they just threw it all away and made such obvious mistakes... Not to the extent that would ruin my enjoyment of it, but it didn't quite match with what we were presented with at first.

Why do I feel like the Grandmother, who should have the family's best interest at heart, actually seems to act like it's the exact opposite? Surely, it would make the family better and stronger and everything if it was united, the sisters supporting each other rather than competing and being constantly at odds... The further I get into the drama, the more I dislike her...

I'm not sure to what extent it can be trusted but according to Baidu Baike, it was filmed between September and December 2024.

I think I read somewhere in the comments here that the original script was written a few years ago so my guess would be that the script was written with these dates and they decided to keep them.

Based on this calendar that someone posted in the gallery, they will start releasing the remaining episode on the 13th https://i.mydramalist.com/5vDbvB_3f.jpg

Episode 21

For a moment there, I was worried that Qi Sizhe actually believed what the teacher was saying, and I’m so so glad that he did not. I’d be really unhappy if he actually bought all the lies, but I was pretty sure by the time he began to ask about the wife.

A part of me is wondering what made them think it’s a good idea to send Han Feng there, when he was also involved in the original drug operation, so if that is basically a continuation of what was happening back then, isn’t it only to be expected that there will be people involved, who were there in the past, and would recognise him? Counting on the hope that it’s not the case feels a bit weird to me but perhaps they figured it was worth the risk?

Another bit of complaint - if the guy gave Han Feng the drug, even if Qi Sizhe gave them what they needed to perfect the formula and it worked fine, shouldn’t he be under its influence? Meanwhile, he was shown completely and perfectly fine. My knowledge about drugs is limited, I’ll admit that, but it doesn’t quite make sense to me? Unless I missed something.

And, of course, there’s also the fact that they didn’t even so much as show Zhu Qingyue in this episode. In fact, for a moment there, I was worried that they forgot about her completely so was quite relieved when the fact that there’s one more person came up in the conversation, but why not show her properly reunite with the team?

The conversation between Qi Sizhe and Han Feng at the cemetery was great. They gave us closure but also left the door open for if there ever was a chance for more. The two definitely went quite a way, from open hostility to friendly banter and sillyness.

Overall, outside of these complaints, it was a really great drama. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a crime/police series as much as I enjoyed this one, and it used to be my absolute favourite genre. I may have come here because of Luo Yunxi and he definitely delivered, but other actors did an amazing job, too. The soundtrack was also great, and of course, the story kept me on my toes and delivered very enjoyable twists.

The year has only just begun and I already have a feeling it’ll be difficult for any title I watch for the rest of the year to top this one. It deserves way more attention than it is getting, and I hope it will end up appreciated.