This review may contain spoilers
This was a very entertaining transmigration parody. It had an engaging set of characters, good chemistry between the leads, was self aware, poked fun at established tropes and even went so far as to challenge them. Things that would normally take me out of the show, such as when the screenwriter entered the body of one of the characters and sneered at his creation, since it's a world that ‘does not even have a Starbucks in it’...and when the FL defended it and said she loved the characters, he mocked her and told her to ‘go play with her Barbie dolls,’- got a good laugh from me.
A Strong, Charismatic Female Lead - I don’t condone any kind of abuse, whether it comes from the ML or the FL…but I can’t think of any scene where Yimeng's actions or anger towards Nan Heng was unreasonable or without justifiable context. It’s true that she relied too much on the script and that she (like many other characters) misjudged him. It’s also true that the script changes and that one doesn’t necessarily have to accept whatever fate is written for them. However, these things don’t change the fact that, in the first 5 episodes…Nan Heng tried to kill her four times. He shoots an arrow at her (and he’s a pretty good shot), tries to have her poisoned, tries to have her drowned, strangles her, has her tied up to a pole and brandishes weapons he plans to use on her, etc. If she wasn’t the FL and didn’t have that plot armor, she would’ve been killed. Surely, any sane person would take a certain amount of time to get over these things?
She had harsh words towards him, but there was always a context for it. If you knew someone hated you, but fell in love with the secret identity you had as a side line and you never told her it was you all along during all the times you spent together and she clung to you...and she had to find out - not from you as it should have been, wouldn't it only make sense for her to think you were playing with her feelings (even if that was not your intent) and were stringing her along? So, she was naturally heartbroken and gave him a tongue lashing.
Nan Heng also made it appear as if he had an affair with her sister at some point and although he had his own reasons for it, it just contributed to the negative image she already had of him.
In spite of all that, Yimeng saved him several times even before she began to trust him. There was a scene where he fights several assassins and she leaves at first, assuming he can make it out alive since he’s the ML…but she realizes he’s way too outnumbered, so she goes back to help, even if she doesn’t have any fighting abilities. She throws rocks at some of his attackers, grabs his hand and forces both of them to jump off a cliff. This is one instance where her reliance on the ’script’ actually saves them. The whole script thing is actually tricky, because while there are things that can be changed, there are also parts set in stone that can’t be avoided. It’s sometimes hard to predict which ones.
Yimeng also clears the name of his friend, Shanggun, thereby preventing him (Nan Heng) from being punished for taking a criminal in.
Vulnerable, Sympathetic Male Lead - There’s a bit of a role reversal here. Nan Heng is misjudged by nearly everyone as an evil male lead, but he’s actually a Cinderella man. He reminds me of the old heroines in classic Asian dramas…the ones who go through so much, with the whole world against them. When they finally get their happy ending you root for them, but they have to suffer for so long before reaching that point. What’s interesting is that both the male lead and female lead make mistakes, but I always understood why. Nan Heng trusted an uncle who actually turned out to be a criminal…but his blind spot makes sense, since this uncle was the only person who gave him any support. I even understood why he took Shanggun in and created the alter ego of Li Shiliu, where he could truly be himself without people judging him. He probably even tried to kill Yimeng in the beginning, because he thought she* and her family were out to kill him.
Despite being vulnerable, he is also very capable in that he is able to save Yimeng several times and even shows her how to play around with some of the ‘fixed plot points’ in the script. I like how both the ML and FL save each other here.
Evil SML - I normally hate it when one of the characters suddenly turns evil so that the main couple can get together. This was not the case. Chu Gui Hong's descent from seemingly good guy to evil male lead was developed in a believable way and I could already see from the beginning that his being very inflexible and prejudiced towards Nan Heng would be his downfall.
The Emperor - I’ve seen many a palace drama with an evil overlord, but the emperor here is probably the worst. His abuse of Nan Heng is bordering on psychopathic and what’s disturbing is that he actually blames a nine year old child for murdering his favorite empress (what child could come up with such a scheme?) and makes him suffer his whole life because of it. I didn’t buy his ’turning good’ in the end. IMHO, the writers should have left him bad, angry and bitter or just killed him off.
One other flaw that I did not like was that it takes the leads too long to get together, but the last ten episodes were worth the wait. Their relationship started out like that couple from The War of the Roses movie, but in the end, I believed it would work out. I imagine Yimeng being a bossy, shrewish sort of wife, with Nan Heng actually preferring it that way. Every other character also had an ending with closure.
A Strong, Charismatic Female Lead - I don’t condone any kind of abuse, whether it comes from the ML or the FL…but I can’t think of any scene where Yimeng's actions or anger towards Nan Heng was unreasonable or without justifiable context. It’s true that she relied too much on the script and that she (like many other characters) misjudged him. It’s also true that the script changes and that one doesn’t necessarily have to accept whatever fate is written for them. However, these things don’t change the fact that, in the first 5 episodes…Nan Heng tried to kill her four times. He shoots an arrow at her (and he’s a pretty good shot), tries to have her poisoned, tries to have her drowned, strangles her, has her tied up to a pole and brandishes weapons he plans to use on her, etc. If she wasn’t the FL and didn’t have that plot armor, she would’ve been killed. Surely, any sane person would take a certain amount of time to get over these things?
She had harsh words towards him, but there was always a context for it. If you knew someone hated you, but fell in love with the secret identity you had as a side line and you never told her it was you all along during all the times you spent together and she clung to you...and she had to find out - not from you as it should have been, wouldn't it only make sense for her to think you were playing with her feelings (even if that was not your intent) and were stringing her along? So, she was naturally heartbroken and gave him a tongue lashing.
Nan Heng also made it appear as if he had an affair with her sister at some point and although he had his own reasons for it, it just contributed to the negative image she already had of him.
In spite of all that, Yimeng saved him several times even before she began to trust him. There was a scene where he fights several assassins and she leaves at first, assuming he can make it out alive since he’s the ML…but she realizes he’s way too outnumbered, so she goes back to help, even if she doesn’t have any fighting abilities. She throws rocks at some of his attackers, grabs his hand and forces both of them to jump off a cliff. This is one instance where her reliance on the ’script’ actually saves them. The whole script thing is actually tricky, because while there are things that can be changed, there are also parts set in stone that can’t be avoided. It’s sometimes hard to predict which ones.
Yimeng also clears the name of his friend, Shanggun, thereby preventing him (Nan Heng) from being punished for taking a criminal in.
Vulnerable, Sympathetic Male Lead - There’s a bit of a role reversal here. Nan Heng is misjudged by nearly everyone as an evil male lead, but he’s actually a Cinderella man. He reminds me of the old heroines in classic Asian dramas…the ones who go through so much, with the whole world against them. When they finally get their happy ending you root for them, but they have to suffer for so long before reaching that point. What’s interesting is that both the male lead and female lead make mistakes, but I always understood why. Nan Heng trusted an uncle who actually turned out to be a criminal…but his blind spot makes sense, since this uncle was the only person who gave him any support. I even understood why he took Shanggun in and created the alter ego of Li Shiliu, where he could truly be himself without people judging him. He probably even tried to kill Yimeng in the beginning, because he thought she* and her family were out to kill him.
Despite being vulnerable, he is also very capable in that he is able to save Yimeng several times and even shows her how to play around with some of the ‘fixed plot points’ in the script. I like how both the ML and FL save each other here.
Evil SML - I normally hate it when one of the characters suddenly turns evil so that the main couple can get together. This was not the case. Chu Gui Hong's descent from seemingly good guy to evil male lead was developed in a believable way and I could already see from the beginning that his being very inflexible and prejudiced towards Nan Heng would be his downfall.
The Emperor - I’ve seen many a palace drama with an evil overlord, but the emperor here is probably the worst. His abuse of Nan Heng is bordering on psychopathic and what’s disturbing is that he actually blames a nine year old child for murdering his favorite empress (what child could come up with such a scheme?) and makes him suffer his whole life because of it. I didn’t buy his ’turning good’ in the end. IMHO, the writers should have left him bad, angry and bitter or just killed him off.
One other flaw that I did not like was that it takes the leads too long to get together, but the last ten episodes were worth the wait. Their relationship started out like that couple from The War of the Roses movie, but in the end, I believed it would work out. I imagine Yimeng being a bossy, shrewish sort of wife, with Nan Heng actually preferring it that way. Every other character also had an ending with closure.
Was this review helpful to you?
