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This review may contain spoilers
Cute Dog, Lovable Brother, and Inane Emperor
Si Jin contained many tropes, but it was highly watchable. The cast, including the dog, elevated it from an average drama.
The Good:
• The swift pace kept the story interesting. There were many ongoing crises to be navigated and overcome.
• The romance between two intelligent, decent people was rewarding.
• Huang Yi's depiction of a villainess was chilling, but it was masterful in allowing her vulnerabilities to be shown.
• Xu Hao portrayed pure narcissism: she was evil with a cute face. Still, the viewer understood how her upbringing, or lack thereof, had brought her to that point. Even that bit of understanding and sympathy didn't lessen my desire to see her suffer a quick and unequivocal demise. It needed to be thorough, like the execution of a vampire: a stake through the heart, decapitation, burning the body, and then nuke it from orbit to be sure. No halfway measures. Two out of four was barely acceptable.
• The most endearing character was played by Zhang Chi. His interactions with his sister, brother-in-law, and love interest brought levity, charm, and warmth to the drama.
• Er Niu, the dog.
The Bad:
• I've never understood why, in most transmigration/reincarnation events, the protagonist didn't take full advantage of previous knowledge to orchestrate outcomes better. Jiang Si re-entered her body ten years in the past with all the knowledge of what had transpired in that time and had many opportunities to take people into her confidence, to warn of possibilities, and to purposefully manipulate situations. For the most part, she was passive and handled each crisis as it happened.
• Was it ever explained how Jiang Si returned or became the Saintess? It was mentioned that Yu died for her, but there was no further explanation of which I'm aware. The flashbacks were unnecessarily vague and confusing.
• Most dilemmas were settled satisfactorily, but did I fall asleep and miss how the timid sister escaped marriage to the sickly son of a magistrate? Or was that never addressed again?
• I'd expected more from the emperor, but I guess we all have blind spots for our loved ones.
• Lazy writing. Let's have the maid slip our private letter halfway through the gate on a busy street so our enemies or anyone else can retrieve it. Let's talk about big secrets in our normal voices without having anyone outside to watch for spies. It's not like we have servants to do that job.
• Do all romantic couples need to leave one another for a distant land for a long period of time after finally getting together? I tire of this trope. At least, this couple communicated by carrier pigeon, unlike modern dramas that pretend cell phones and the internet don't exist in other cities and countries.
I'm adding an extra half star solely because of the emperor's line of being a good judge of people made my jaw drop.
The Good:
• The swift pace kept the story interesting. There were many ongoing crises to be navigated and overcome.
• The romance between two intelligent, decent people was rewarding.
• Huang Yi's depiction of a villainess was chilling, but it was masterful in allowing her vulnerabilities to be shown.
• Xu Hao portrayed pure narcissism: she was evil with a cute face. Still, the viewer understood how her upbringing, or lack thereof, had brought her to that point. Even that bit of understanding and sympathy didn't lessen my desire to see her suffer a quick and unequivocal demise. It needed to be thorough, like the execution of a vampire: a stake through the heart, decapitation, burning the body, and then nuke it from orbit to be sure. No halfway measures. Two out of four was barely acceptable.
• The most endearing character was played by Zhang Chi. His interactions with his sister, brother-in-law, and love interest brought levity, charm, and warmth to the drama.
• Er Niu, the dog.
The Bad:
• I've never understood why, in most transmigration/reincarnation events, the protagonist didn't take full advantage of previous knowledge to orchestrate outcomes better. Jiang Si re-entered her body ten years in the past with all the knowledge of what had transpired in that time and had many opportunities to take people into her confidence, to warn of possibilities, and to purposefully manipulate situations. For the most part, she was passive and handled each crisis as it happened.
• Was it ever explained how Jiang Si returned or became the Saintess? It was mentioned that Yu died for her, but there was no further explanation of which I'm aware. The flashbacks were unnecessarily vague and confusing.
• Most dilemmas were settled satisfactorily, but did I fall asleep and miss how the timid sister escaped marriage to the sickly son of a magistrate? Or was that never addressed again?
• I'd expected more from the emperor, but I guess we all have blind spots for our loved ones.
• Lazy writing. Let's have the maid slip our private letter halfway through the gate on a busy street so our enemies or anyone else can retrieve it. Let's talk about big secrets in our normal voices without having anyone outside to watch for spies. It's not like we have servants to do that job.
• Do all romantic couples need to leave one another for a distant land for a long period of time after finally getting together? I tire of this trope. At least, this couple communicated by carrier pigeon, unlike modern dramas that pretend cell phones and the internet don't exist in other cities and countries.
I'm adding an extra half star solely because of the emperor's line of being a good judge of people made my jaw drop.
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