esiom

Well made, with some small flaws

Story

Throughout this series, I was never bored. The story is straightforward. The politics were simple enough so I was never confused, yet interesting so I didn't get bored. Everything made sense. I never felt like the politics were fillers; instead, they felt necessary, they felt like they were a result of the plot rather than the reason for it. There were no "sidequests".

Since the way the first episode was set up (Jinxiu being attacked), my feeling was that I was watching "the other country", because we are used to the good guys being on defense. This was really cool, I enjoyed the dynamic.

Characters

To be honest, I never felt much chemistry between the leads. However, their story is well-written, honest, not marked by misunderstandings. They keep their promises to each other, they stick together through thick and thin. I think it's exactly the kind of love story I want to see from a cdrama. There was a moment when the main characters could have split up "for the sake of each other", I am glad it didn't happen.

Fu Yi Xiao is a nice character. She is smart enough so she doesn't trust anyone blindly. She is decisive both in battles and in love. She was no snowflake. She can withstand torture and she doesn't blink in front of violence. There were many times she could have interfered to save evil characters or to ask for a judgement, yet she didn't, she watched them die.

Feng Sui Ge was a breath of fresh air between other MLs. He is someone that cares about the people around him, but he does not forgive those who betray him. He is serious, composed, but he is also not afraid of expressing his feelings. He does not negotiate with evil characters, he kills them without a second thought. For revenge, he will go miles, and he will punish everyone that tries to stop him. He stands up straight in front of the emperor, he defies orders, he does not submit and he fights for what he thinks it's right.

The Princess of Susha and Emperor of Jinxiu were an unexpected, yet absolutely stunning part of the plot. Such crazy, unhinged interactions between them. A desperate person wanting power and revenge, and a violent tyrant drowning in pleasures, yet never truly happy. They start to slowly find other sides of themselves, but it's late - their love story is tragic. I wished they had a happy ending, I wished I would see more of them. I know cdramas are a lot about justice, and that characters will always die for their past, but I hoped for an exception.

Critics:
- Too many moments when someone is seriously injured / wounded during fights, but then makes a full recovery within a day.
- A lot of last moment saving each other.
- Some of the side stories are not correctly wrapped up.

Overall, 9/10. It would have been a 10/10, but these small tropes and the small lack of chemistry I felt make it a 9/10.

Read More

When the leads are not the main characters

This is a very hard drama to rate for me. I kept oscillating between giving it a 7 and giving it a 10. I ended up giving it a 7, reasons explained below. Major spoilers ahead!

The story can be a 10 because it feels very real, it is 100% believable and it's based on historical events. But as a kdrama, I feel like having such a story can sometimes be a downside, because it brings a lot of frustration to the viewer, and it fails in some aspects by not focusing on the correct things.

In the beginning, I absolutely loved the main couple. I think other shows such as Business Proposal copied the whole idea of dating using someone else's identity. The ML is refreshing to watch. The chemistry - I honestly didn't feel any, but I mean it in a good way - the scenes were so relaxed that everything just made sense, they felt genuine, they didn't feel sexual or amplified by the cinematography. The characters were interesting and there was quite some tension between parents and children coming from different views. I could understand their problems, the hesitance to date each other, their struggles.

The tone of the series changed after Lee Soo Ryun (2nd FL) gets pressured by Hwang Ki Nam (father of the ML) in the interrogation room to advance the fake relationship between 2FL and ML towards marriage. This is the first moment we actually understand that things are much more serious and dramatic than they appear to be. And, even though the 2FL was receiving a lot of hate throughout the show, I feel like she was actually the first one to understand the danger of the situation they were in.

I started feeling that the choices the FL and ML made about their relationship after the engagement of the ML and 2FL were quite selfish. They didn't understand the message that was sent to them, and the choice to continue / resume their relationship was going to affect a lot of other people, because they weren't careful enough to keep it a secret. I mean, I understand their choice but I don't agree with it. One month together doesn't seem worth it when it can completely ruin the lives of entire families.

Then, the series started to show more and more about the protesters. We also get sequences from the army, and what the officials were planning. Those were nicely done and kept me hooked. Even though it kept switching between them and the main couple, I actually started to get really bored of the main couple and very uninterested in their relationship, it just seemed to go in circles. I was really interested in everything else, and that was something the series did really well in my opinion. This is why I named my review "When the leads are not the main characters", because it feels like their relationship was insignificant compared to what was going on in the world.

I didn't care as much about the ending. For the main couple, I might be harsh, but it felt like they deserved it a bit. It was a string of poor choices, judgements and crazy actions. For the other civilians though - they definitely didn't deserve it, but we can't get mad - it's based on historical events and I am glad the drama stayed true to it.

The acting is great. I especially want to highlight Oh Man Suk playing the father of the ML and the leader of the anti-communist investigation committee - or something similar. He did a wonderful job, and he played a similar role to one he had in CLOY. It suits him very well.

One more thing I did enjoy (and it's a very unpopular opinion) is the 2FL character. Even if it was a bit flawed in the beginning, I felt that she was one of the very few ones that correctly assessed the dangers awaiting the characters in the show. People call her selfish for going on with the engagement - but I would do the same if it was between choosing the safety of my own family and a very temporary relationship of two friends. And even though there was engagement / marriage pressure, she didn't intervene in the relationship between ML and FL more than she felt forced to. She didn't fall in love with the ML (or she hid it well), and she supported the ML-FL couple when she could. She was brave for intervening to save people during the violent altercations between soldiers and civilians.

Conclusion: the non-romance plot of the drama clearly outshined the romance one. Romance wasn't bad either (taken individually), but felt a bit out of place / unnecessary when looking at the bigger picture.

Read More