This review may contain spoilers
This is a story that straddles the line of a sweet slice-of-life story about our heroine and the man she rescues from the snow with a simple setting that focuses on breathing life into the characters who are the heart of the story, and the world around them that turns into a rather fable-like, whimsical and emotional tale of war and humanity. This is a careful balance that requires some suspension of disbelieve to work but is for the most part enjoyable to watch.
Despite everything is a lot of sincerity within this story that at first, as it starts of small because that reflects how our heroine Fan Changyu sees the world and how her life is at that point of the story and when the story manages to be earnest, simple and focused on the main characters while fleshing slowly out the story then it is at it’s strongest.
The narrative does manage to frame the character’s worldview and life very neatly and the smooth rhythm of the story and the comfortable pace it had early on allowed us to adapt to the world and get used to the own inner logic of it all, that makes this into a fanciful fable-like story and a very old school hero’s journey. Many of the characters we meet along the way are colorful and larger-then-life, but also very down-to-earth and real, and despite how unrealistic the story sometimes gets. But that is also what makes it fun, if people allow themselves to suspend their disbelieve.
Fan Changyu is a hero after my heart. Kind-hearted, with inner and outer strength that draws people in, stubborn without it seeming too unrealistic. She never comes across as monotone female character who is only strong for the sake of being strong, but is allowed to experience fear, make mistakes in a way that makes her story feel real and deserved. The character though does fall into the trap of the more old-school classic hero in a fable that gets too good at everything too quickly just for the sake of the plot, making parts of her journey feel unearned, while Xie Zheng fades too far into the background in favor of her, or other background characters, in the later half of the drama.
The deliberately slow-moving, sincere love story between our main characters, which is full of longing silences and yearnfully glances works wonders for large parts of the story, and whether our main couple is separated or together the story doesn’t really suffer from the absence of one or the other.
The romance is however put on the backburner for the sake of the hero’s journey that Changyu must go on, and as the narrative shifts from telling that slow-burn romance into something more politically heavy and shifting allegiances. That shift feels sudden and a tad bit grating for those who got rightfully heavily invested in the romance that the story promised and set up early on, and that shift does change the story a bit too drastically.
*spoiler* For my part the shift in thinking of Changyu, as she does things for the other people in her live and not just her husband, felt quite well earned within the narrative and I like the fact that he isn’t her whole world and her motives are also for her and her people, and not just so she can stand tall next to her husband. Because this feels like a story about her. Her hero’s journey. But I do understand why that deviation from the original novel wasn’t for everyone. *spoiler*
The drama deals quite well with its themes of humanity and the inherent value of a single life, and the sacrifices of ordinary people for the sake of the simple life they want to lead and to feel at peace. And it does all of that while delivering some soapy political intrigue, fun battle sequences and fun twists.
There are subtle references to class issues that are woven into the narrative through clothing, the characters’ attitudes towards money and how they see the world, as well as the reality of the harshness of everyday people and the willfully ignorant aristocracy who can play war because of their own greed.
There is an odd balance between the silly, adventurous and yet sincere tone all through the forty episodes that the drama spans. No matter how funny, heartbreaking or even sorrowful the events of the plot may be there is always a certain earnestness and warmth that shines through. A certain emotional essence that the story never loses.
Despite the even, and intentionally slow pace that allows itself to stop for a moment to allow us to spend quality time with the characters and the relationships they develop, the drama never gets boring. There’s always something going on, and the side stories are well handled and come at the right moments to enrich rather than interrupt the main story. And each of these side-plots within the narrative eventually ties back into the main story in some meaningful way.
Both Fan Changyu and Xie Zheng are on a long journey in this drama. They grow even if the story takes them in different directions, which then does lead them to the same place at the end. And despite the stumbles on that road now and again the drama still manages to deliver plenty of charm, heart, and entertainment value —especially if you’re willing to suspend some disbelief too embrace the soapier twists, badly written court politics and the occasional oddities of the plot that is in a rush to get to the end.
Despite everything is a lot of sincerity within this story that at first, as it starts of small because that reflects how our heroine Fan Changyu sees the world and how her life is at that point of the story and when the story manages to be earnest, simple and focused on the main characters while fleshing slowly out the story then it is at it’s strongest.
The narrative does manage to frame the character’s worldview and life very neatly and the smooth rhythm of the story and the comfortable pace it had early on allowed us to adapt to the world and get used to the own inner logic of it all, that makes this into a fanciful fable-like story and a very old school hero’s journey. Many of the characters we meet along the way are colorful and larger-then-life, but also very down-to-earth and real, and despite how unrealistic the story sometimes gets. But that is also what makes it fun, if people allow themselves to suspend their disbelieve.
Fan Changyu is a hero after my heart. Kind-hearted, with inner and outer strength that draws people in, stubborn without it seeming too unrealistic. She never comes across as monotone female character who is only strong for the sake of being strong, but is allowed to experience fear, make mistakes in a way that makes her story feel real and deserved. The character though does fall into the trap of the more old-school classic hero in a fable that gets too good at everything too quickly just for the sake of the plot, making parts of her journey feel unearned, while Xie Zheng fades too far into the background in favor of her, or other background characters, in the later half of the drama.
The deliberately slow-moving, sincere love story between our main characters, which is full of longing silences and yearnfully glances works wonders for large parts of the story, and whether our main couple is separated or together the story doesn’t really suffer from the absence of one or the other.
The romance is however put on the backburner for the sake of the hero’s journey that Changyu must go on, and as the narrative shifts from telling that slow-burn romance into something more politically heavy and shifting allegiances. That shift feels sudden and a tad bit grating for those who got rightfully heavily invested in the romance that the story promised and set up early on, and that shift does change the story a bit too drastically.
*spoiler* For my part the shift in thinking of Changyu, as she does things for the other people in her live and not just her husband, felt quite well earned within the narrative and I like the fact that he isn’t her whole world and her motives are also for her and her people, and not just so she can stand tall next to her husband. Because this feels like a story about her. Her hero’s journey. But I do understand why that deviation from the original novel wasn’t for everyone. *spoiler*
The drama deals quite well with its themes of humanity and the inherent value of a single life, and the sacrifices of ordinary people for the sake of the simple life they want to lead and to feel at peace. And it does all of that while delivering some soapy political intrigue, fun battle sequences and fun twists.
There are subtle references to class issues that are woven into the narrative through clothing, the characters’ attitudes towards money and how they see the world, as well as the reality of the harshness of everyday people and the willfully ignorant aristocracy who can play war because of their own greed.
There is an odd balance between the silly, adventurous and yet sincere tone all through the forty episodes that the drama spans. No matter how funny, heartbreaking or even sorrowful the events of the plot may be there is always a certain earnestness and warmth that shines through. A certain emotional essence that the story never loses.
Despite the even, and intentionally slow pace that allows itself to stop for a moment to allow us to spend quality time with the characters and the relationships they develop, the drama never gets boring. There’s always something going on, and the side stories are well handled and come at the right moments to enrich rather than interrupt the main story. And each of these side-plots within the narrative eventually ties back into the main story in some meaningful way.
Both Fan Changyu and Xie Zheng are on a long journey in this drama. They grow even if the story takes them in different directions, which then does lead them to the same place at the end. And despite the stumbles on that road now and again the drama still manages to deliver plenty of charm, heart, and entertainment value —especially if you’re willing to suspend some disbelief too embrace the soapier twists, badly written court politics and the occasional oddities of the plot that is in a rush to get to the end.
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