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A Dream within a Dream chinese drama review
Completed
A Dream within a Dream
0 people found this review helpful
by FDiyF
Jul 22, 2025
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

My stomach cramped from laughing too much

FL is Song Xiaoyu in a modern world, who landed a job as main actress in a costume tv series A Dream of QingNing. She was reading the script at home when she fell asleep and woke up in the story, as the main lead character she was supposed to play - Song Yimeng. She was bewildered that this character would eventually become paralyzed after a failed jumping off the tower suicide, so she tried hard to alter the course of storyline by not acting out the written plot, which was her falling in love with the male lead 7th Prince Nan Heng who would later cheat on her with her sister Song Yiting which drove her to the failed suicide and the killing of her whole Song clan by ML. Things did not turn out as she had wanted because she keeps getting killed and reset again each time she try to deviate. And there starts the adventure of her unwillingly cross paths with ML, finding out that they’re stuck with the script rule “ML will always save the FL”, sparking a long super exhausting story of laughter-and-anger-inducing misunderstandings while carrying out the written plotline in the process.

I have never seen an ML so misunderstood as 7th Prince, Nan Heng. His father hates him, his uncle used him, his brother fears him, the common people detests him, and the one he loves avoids him like a plague with pure prejudice. Such a tortured soul who had been suffering since a little boy just because his father decided to marry his mom for political balance and later hated his guts just because he was his mom’s son. It’s a wonder he could grow into the good-natured man that he is, although he hides this good side of him pretty well to protect himself, ruthlessly fighting the enemies at the border which how he earned himself the all-feared title God of Death. He took so many punishments on behalf of the people he cherished, and none actually thanked him for it or even mention it to others. It’s so frustrating how badly ML is treated in the first 3/4 of the show. However, although my general description of the ML sound like the typical roles Liu Yuning took up - broken, hurt, fierce, lovestruck - it is actually a new role I saw him in as he constantly become the source of laughter in the comedic scenes. It really puts some new perspective of him for me.

Cant stand the FL. She is annoying, selfish, stupid and reckless. The first few episodes was fun, but when she keeps on being prejudiced towards ML despite all the obvious proof against it, i just cant stand this character. It’s a blessing that she had an extremely intelligent and quick-witted younger sister Song Yiting who often knocks some senses into that pea-brain of hers. FL often gaslights ML and is so mean towards him for 3/4 parts of the show. She acts all hurt when ML didnt reveal all his strategies and tricks to overcome the enemy, and yet she herself never really come clean on why she keeps pushing ML away with all those unexplained quirks she displays. It’s frustrating to see her hurting ML over and over again just because of a mere script. I get that she is afraid of the script coming true, but cant she be kinder to him ? She had zero confidence in ML in that 3/4 of the show before ML proved to her that he could help her divert the iconic scene she feared so much to happen. It also irks me that ML keeps chasing after her despite her cruel attitude towards him. I just cant ship them. If not for the ML i wouldve dropped this long ago. I have no grudge against the actress, she is astonishingly beautiful with amazing acting skills, its just too bad this character is so poorly written that it makes it really hard for me to tolerate her.

The sweetest, purest soul goes to 18th Prince NanRui, the supposedly Crown Prince who acts like a spoilt child. Although he was at odds with ML in the earlier episodes, and I quite hated him then, but it was clear this was due to his insecurity and gullibleness. This character is also consistent throughout the show, although he eventually realized he had laid his loyalty in the wrong man, his sincerity, kindness and compassion stays strong all the way to the end. He was so loving towards the SML, Chu Guihong who he considered as his true blood brother instead of a cousin and ready to concede the crown prince title to beg th Emperor and ML to spare SML’s life after the attempted assassination, and when ML disclosed the secret about the script world, the first thing he blurted out was how painful ML must have been in to have died twice during the resets. And instead of worrying about getting himself injured or killed as ML laid out the plan to save the emperor, this Nan Rui was instead anxious about ML getting killed while luring SML’s troops away. Such a compassionate soul. It’s hard to really hate this character even when he was in cahoots with SML in the earlier parts. And his pairing with his bodyguard Ji Xiang is the cutest. One a blabbermouth with a kind heart, while the other a stone with no facial expression and even lesser spoken words, except display of immense loyalty towards his master.

As for the SML, Chu Guihong, he had the most character transformation of all although in a negative way. From the pure and innocent SML who acts only as ML’s love rival, he became a full fledged villain who is blinded by pure obsession to overcome ML using any means necessary. It’s really sad cuz their friendship had been beautiful in the beginning and I was hoping they would reconcile and SML stayed being a good person.

By the way, what kind of bastard of a father suspects a 9yo child of his to lead assassins to kill the wife? Like seriously? Any other sane adult would first suspect the rest of adult in the entourage. Why the hell was the blame pinned on the ML, Nan Heng, right off the bat? I cant fathom how this stupid emperor’s brain works. Blaming a 9yo for killing the empress using assassins? For real? You blamed the child for 19 long years and never really figured out any loophole in the investigation? 🙄

I have trouble handling the emotional rollercoaster the show thrusts into its audience. One minute the father is at his son’s throat (literally) and made the audience feel so angry at the father and pity the son, and the next scene was of the son running to attend to his collapsed mom, who actually fiegned sickness to trap her son and future bride in a room so they would sleep together (in a comedic way). What the frick 😂😂😂 one minute i was so angry and feel ML’s heartbreak for his bastard father’s action, and the next i was literally laughing my arse off at the trapping scene. And that is just one of many comedic scenes in the show. And they didnt look forced or slapstick at all like most comedy shows I’ve seen. I was in a restaurant one time and cant stop myself from laughing like a banshee that i had to put down the phone to continue watching at home else people might think i’m crazy. The show had so many references to other costume drama such as A Journey to Love and Love like the Galaxy, even having the themesongs of these series played in that scene even. Imagine how much cramp my stomach had to sustain? 😂 each time ML was forced to take the hits as he tried to kill the FL to figure out if he had been under her spell was hillarious as F. I had to pause the playback so my laughter would subside first, else I’d miss the next scenes.

Although the plot kinda slowed down and mellowed around 30 episodes, gradually look absurd when the screenwriter also went into the world to fix the storyline, it picked up its pace again in the last 3 episodes when they went to fight against the script. The ending, although rather draggy with after-climax scenes, is apt and fitting, brilliant even that explains the series title. It’s a happy ending btw so you guys who avoids tragic endings can watch with ease.

I liked the songs and bgm in this show. Especially the cowboy-like wild west background music during comedic scenes 😆
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