Addictive! melodrama using all the tricks in the book to keep you glued to the screen.
This is like a sugar binge in a drama form. Not because it's sweet (unless we're talking sweet poison^^), but because you can't help but eat it all at once for the rush of excitement it gives you, then wonder how come there's no more ...and what do you mean it's been 40 episodes already? The slump is real but short-lived. After a bit you start craving more wholesome food;) Seriously though, it is a rare drama for me that's so unapologetically in-your-face about being pure emotion-driven entertainment without sacrificing the storytelling. If you strip all the melodramatic elements, the story at its core is still powerful enough to engage and resonate with you.
The storyline can be divided into three parts. The first focuses on the heroine's downfall, subsequent return to the capital under a new identity (coincidentaly on purpose both characters share the same nickname: A-Li) and her attempts at restoring the real Jiang Li’s reputation. Fortunately, most of the pain and suffering was reserved for the villains in this drama, so we're not hit with a prolonged account of all the wrongs done to both girls at the start. There's nothing groundbreaking here in terms of plot which involves the typical household scheming, but it's very fast-paced and entertaining.
Second part deals with A-Li trying to uncover the truth of what happened to her real family. She goes on a trip and gets herself thrown in jail (twice). We also see a lot more of the male lead, Duke Su aka Xiao Heng, as their intimacy grows, so we're treated to some epic flirting. Oh, the amount of double entendres flying around! They both loved to tease each other about everything from being a straight-faced liar to having a pretty sulking face ...and it was the FL that did the lying while the ML did the sulking.
The third part is all about the villains reaping what they sowed and the culmination of a drama-long scheme involving the emperor. We also finally explore Duke Su's past but it gets overshadowed by the villains drama. Be prepared for the dramatics to go up a few notches. Best practice: take your thinking cap off entirely for the finale.
What I liked about this drama:
As a revenge story, it's emotionally engaging without crossing into ridiculous or depressing. Thankfully, it didn't sacrifice logic (too much) for the sake of delivering a more spectacular face-slapping. The villains have some depth to them. Their backstories show us how they were compelled to turn to the dark side, making their motivations more complex and understandable.
As a female-centric drama it stayed true to the theme. I don't remember the last time I liked a female lead in a c-drama as much. She had such a calming presence and looked enviably zen while exacting her revenge. A well-rounded character that was genuinely strong, brave, cunning but also compassionate and protective of others around her.
As a melodrama it made clever use of music, visuals, comedic exaggeration and pathos to enhance the emotional impact and draw viewers into the scene. Some of those stylistic choices were jarring at first, like the frequent use of extreme close-ups with actors looking directly at the camera or rather at you... There's definitely some flirting with breaking the fourth wall in those shots. It makes you feel like you're invited to be a part of the conversation, not just a passive observer, all in line with the immersive theatre theme. But there were also fun elements - I found it endlessly entertaining that the male protagonist would always enter or exit the 'stage' in some kind of dramatic fashion.
Although romance is clearly not the focus of the drama, it was the highlight for me. What I especially liked about A-Li and Xiao Heng's relationship was that there were no ridiculous misunderstandings or made-up trouble just for the sake of cheap dramatics. From the start, there's this feeling of tacit connection between them. Since there was no need to rehash everything on screen, they made good use of their time together to flirt and tease each other;) All throughout the drama they're busy with their own agendas while keeping an eye on each other and offering support when needed. That usually meant XH stepping in when A-Li got herself into trouble, which was sort of the running theme in the first half of the drama. It had the knight-in-shining-armour vibe but only on the surface. XH could offer her resources she didn't have and A-Li was smart enough to use him, just as she was aware he used her in his own schemes. The deep trust and uderstanding allowed these two to stand unshakably strong together while all sorts of drama raged around. That's about my favourite type of couple.
The leads chemistry went a long way to compensate for the sparseness of their scenes together. Both Wu Jinyan and Wang Xingyue seemed to have a lot of fun playing these characters and looked very comfortable with each other. They had little difficutly switching between the playful, more theatrical acting and the serious, emotive kind as needed. I liked them both immensely.
The harmonious relationship between the main leads contrasted strongly with the angsty, violent, misguided tragimance that was Shen Yurong and Wanning story. I can't say I liked them, but they were definitely memorable. No effort was spared to make us feel for what amounted to an emotional warfare between the fallen once honorable scholar and the disturbed, possessive princess. It's quite hard to stay indifferent to them as a result, even if the only thing you feel like doing is actively cheer for them to kill each other. I have to admit they succeeded with softening my feelings towards Wanning somewhat by the end. Mostly because I believed she genuinely fell in love, even if her method of securing that love was completely demented. Not with Shen Yurong though, I wholeheartedly detested that murderous coward right to the bittersweet end. I have to give it to the actors, they were both chillingly good in their roles. Liang Yongqi left such a deep impression on me as Shen Yurong, I probably won't be able to enjoy him in another role for a while. Li Meng perfected the haughty princess I-can-trample-you-like-an-ant look, but there was a bit too much theatricality in her portrayal for me to really connect with the character.
What I'm not so thrilled about:
Let's be honest the drama has derailed in the finale. I don't even know what to call that last battle scene, other than some weird visual fetish. It's like they run out of episodes to tell the rest of the story but still had a lot of expensive scenes left, so decided to include them all with little care to the storyline. Better project management next time guys!
I wish they gave us more happy moments with the lead couple and their families in the last few episodes. That would've been a much needed (and well-earned) breather from the angsty villain arc. Alas, it isn't that kind of drama.
Some scenes were obviously just added for shock value, including an unnecessarily high death toll. Needlessly killing off well-liked characters is a sure way for a drama to get on my shitlist. On that note, going into battle with no armour or helmet had me facepalming so hard I hurt myself.
Why on earth did they bring ML’s grandfather so late in the story? We could've had 40 episodes of their banter!! I feel robbed. Xiao Heng deserved to be a better developed, more complex character. It looked like they planned for it in the last arc but run out of episodes... I'm not sure, but it was a little disappointing.
Not a fan of the way they resolved Shuran's story arc. It was way too convenient and incomplete, especially with how long the drama lingered on her story.
This one is more of my own making. I unfortunately went to Douban to read some comments when I started watching this drama. One of them said that the FL looked like a blind person and I couldn't unsee it for the rest of the drama;( I liked Wu Jinyan's acting on the whole but sometimes her gaze really looked empty.
But all that's minor stuff, go and let yourself be seduced by this epic melodrama with no regrets!
The storyline can be divided into three parts. The first focuses on the heroine's downfall, subsequent return to the capital under a new identity (coincidentaly on purpose both characters share the same nickname: A-Li) and her attempts at restoring the real Jiang Li’s reputation. Fortunately, most of the pain and suffering was reserved for the villains in this drama, so we're not hit with a prolonged account of all the wrongs done to both girls at the start. There's nothing groundbreaking here in terms of plot which involves the typical household scheming, but it's very fast-paced and entertaining.
Second part deals with A-Li trying to uncover the truth of what happened to her real family. She goes on a trip and gets herself thrown in jail (twice). We also see a lot more of the male lead, Duke Su aka Xiao Heng, as their intimacy grows, so we're treated to some epic flirting. Oh, the amount of double entendres flying around! They both loved to tease each other about everything from being a straight-faced liar to having a pretty sulking face ...and it was the FL that did the lying while the ML did the sulking.
The third part is all about the villains reaping what they sowed and the culmination of a drama-long scheme involving the emperor. We also finally explore Duke Su's past but it gets overshadowed by the villains drama. Be prepared for the dramatics to go up a few notches. Best practice: take your thinking cap off entirely for the finale.
What I liked about this drama:
As a revenge story, it's emotionally engaging without crossing into ridiculous or depressing. Thankfully, it didn't sacrifice logic (too much) for the sake of delivering a more spectacular face-slapping. The villains have some depth to them. Their backstories show us how they were compelled to turn to the dark side, making their motivations more complex and understandable.
As a female-centric drama it stayed true to the theme. I don't remember the last time I liked a female lead in a c-drama as much. She had such a calming presence and looked enviably zen while exacting her revenge. A well-rounded character that was genuinely strong, brave, cunning but also compassionate and protective of others around her.
As a melodrama it made clever use of music, visuals, comedic exaggeration and pathos to enhance the emotional impact and draw viewers into the scene. Some of those stylistic choices were jarring at first, like the frequent use of extreme close-ups with actors looking directly at the camera or rather at you... There's definitely some flirting with breaking the fourth wall in those shots. It makes you feel like you're invited to be a part of the conversation, not just a passive observer, all in line with the immersive theatre theme. But there were also fun elements - I found it endlessly entertaining that the male protagonist would always enter or exit the 'stage' in some kind of dramatic fashion.
Although romance is clearly not the focus of the drama, it was the highlight for me. What I especially liked about A-Li and Xiao Heng's relationship was that there were no ridiculous misunderstandings or made-up trouble just for the sake of cheap dramatics. From the start, there's this feeling of tacit connection between them. Since there was no need to rehash everything on screen, they made good use of their time together to flirt and tease each other;) All throughout the drama they're busy with their own agendas while keeping an eye on each other and offering support when needed. That usually meant XH stepping in when A-Li got herself into trouble, which was sort of the running theme in the first half of the drama. It had the knight-in-shining-armour vibe but only on the surface. XH could offer her resources she didn't have and A-Li was smart enough to use him, just as she was aware he used her in his own schemes. The deep trust and uderstanding allowed these two to stand unshakably strong together while all sorts of drama raged around. That's about my favourite type of couple.
The leads chemistry went a long way to compensate for the sparseness of their scenes together. Both Wu Jinyan and Wang Xingyue seemed to have a lot of fun playing these characters and looked very comfortable with each other. They had little difficutly switching between the playful, more theatrical acting and the serious, emotive kind as needed. I liked them both immensely.
The harmonious relationship between the main leads contrasted strongly with the angsty, violent, misguided tragimance that was Shen Yurong and Wanning story. I can't say I liked them, but they were definitely memorable. No effort was spared to make us feel for what amounted to an emotional warfare between the fallen once honorable scholar and the disturbed, possessive princess. It's quite hard to stay indifferent to them as a result, even if the only thing you feel like doing is actively cheer for them to kill each other. I have to admit they succeeded with softening my feelings towards Wanning somewhat by the end. Mostly because I believed she genuinely fell in love, even if her method of securing that love was completely demented. Not with Shen Yurong though, I wholeheartedly detested that murderous coward right to the bittersweet end. I have to give it to the actors, they were both chillingly good in their roles. Liang Yongqi left such a deep impression on me as Shen Yurong, I probably won't be able to enjoy him in another role for a while. Li Meng perfected the haughty princess I-can-trample-you-like-an-ant look, but there was a bit too much theatricality in her portrayal for me to really connect with the character.
What I'm not so thrilled about:
Let's be honest the drama has derailed in the finale. I don't even know what to call that last battle scene, other than some weird visual fetish. It's like they run out of episodes to tell the rest of the story but still had a lot of expensive scenes left, so decided to include them all with little care to the storyline. Better project management next time guys!
I wish they gave us more happy moments with the lead couple and their families in the last few episodes. That would've been a much needed (and well-earned) breather from the angsty villain arc. Alas, it isn't that kind of drama.
Some scenes were obviously just added for shock value, including an unnecessarily high death toll. Needlessly killing off well-liked characters is a sure way for a drama to get on my shitlist. On that note, going into battle with no armour or helmet had me facepalming so hard I hurt myself.
Why on earth did they bring ML’s grandfather so late in the story? We could've had 40 episodes of their banter!! I feel robbed. Xiao Heng deserved to be a better developed, more complex character. It looked like they planned for it in the last arc but run out of episodes... I'm not sure, but it was a little disappointing.
Not a fan of the way they resolved Shuran's story arc. It was way too convenient and incomplete, especially with how long the drama lingered on her story.
This one is more of my own making. I unfortunately went to Douban to read some comments when I started watching this drama. One of them said that the FL looked like a blind person and I couldn't unsee it for the rest of the drama;( I liked Wu Jinyan's acting on the whole but sometimes her gaze really looked empty.
But all that's minor stuff, go and let yourself be seduced by this epic melodrama with no regrets!
Was this review helpful to you?
