FDiyF

Amazing plot with amazing acting

My first impression before starting on this drama was that this must have been one of those arranged marriages with a quiet despondent young master who only marry after being forced by the family.

I never expected to see an ML who is so ruthless, fierce and full of hatred lord of the clan as portrayed in Episode 1. He didnt even bat an eye to refuse the marriage ordered by the martriach of the family, my fav Lady Xu. It took a battle for him to finally agree to the marriage, and it was only done for his pride and not because he bowed to the family’s wish. He is resolute, he is strict, but has a soft, kind nature that he didnt like to show much outwardly. He held back this nature because he didn't want his hatred and grudge towards the Qiao clan to dissipate hence failing to avenge his grandfather, father and brother’s death due to Qiao’s inaction in a battle 14years prior. I’d say the ML is actually the one who went through a full-fledged character development, from a ruthless, blood-thirsty, power hungry, vengeful warlord into someone filled with love and cherishes a woman born into the enemy’s clan.

Meanwhile, Qiao Man the FL has become one of my favourite FL of all time, despite me always leaning towards physcially strong with martial ability FL all this while. Although the FL here was physically weak and possess no martial prowess at all, I think she still stands with the badass of all badasses FL out there. Her intelligence and strategical prowess is top notch, and she is able to tactically curb any hurdle that came her way with ease, without needing much saving from ML. Her mental strength is even sounder than ML itself. While ML was almost swayed by the silent enemy, it had not been the same with FL. FL is someone who is extremely eloquent with amazing debate ability and extremely calm and coherent composure. She didnt need to raise her voice or snap at people to gain the upper hand. Her arguments are flawlessly calm which can stun even the fiercest lord. She knows when to advance and when to retreat like a true born strategist. I like her character on screen better as she is more fluid and scheming than the book FL. The book FL is just a flat, straight arrow with vision only to capture ML’s heart enough so he would extinguish the hatred towards her clan, nothing more nothing less. There was not much strategizing by her in the book. On a side note, the actress is dang good at crying! All the heaving and sniffling and hiccupping, i’ve never seen a crying scene as convincing as hers! It’s so close to reality. Kudos to song zu er!

I really love the 2nd ML Wei Yan portrayed by Liu Duan Duan. I have seen him in Joy of Life as the Third Prince and The Rebel Princess as General Song. I can see that he has the tendency to adopt weird characters with rather heretic nature. In TPoB he plays the cousin of ML who lusts after FL. Although he was infatuated with her, he knows he cannot move beyond his imagination. He still holds the brotherhood with ML quite dearly, and when he could no longer contain the situation, he immediately retreats to his paternal family to mend his broken heart. All three characters I have seen him play have a certain eerie demeanour with sinister look, as if he had something evil brewing behind the scene. Theyre really interesting characters which add darkish colours to each show. On a side note, the 2D portrait drawn by Wei Yan was the first portrait that i saw bore exact resemblance to the actual person. In other shows I always wonder how the hell do they find people with portrait that looks nothing like the person they were drawn after. 😂


I am happy to say that this is the first tv show that I watch on streaming platform which I never use the fast forward button. Every scene is worth watching and I have no interest at all to skip. I especially love the side couple Wei Liang-Xiao Tao who became most anticipated than even the main couple. Their antics are amusing yet fiery. Usually with goofy side couples like this one i’d just abuse the FF button and skip them all, but not on this show. Unbelievably the FF button stays pristine all throughout the show. What a feat on my part!

If xiao tao-wei liang won my vote as my favourite couple, the four Wei generals - Wei Liang, Wei Qu, Wei Xiao, Wei Dou - won my vote for most favourite side characters. Unexpectedly, they became the source of comic relief for this show in contrast to the fierce and ruthless look they pose in the first 2 episodes. Wei Xiao had been hell bent on killing FL in the first few episodes, eager to shoot her dead with his deadly arrow but at the end he was the one entrusted to escort and protect her to Boya to get reinforcement for ML’s troops. Such an irony and a full swing turn of event indeed.

Another thing that I love about this show is that all misunderstandings or conflicts are resolved in a timely manner with no excessive over-reaction involved. The plot is even more engaging than the actual novel it was after. Events in the book are mostly flat and non-dramatic (other than battle scenes) compared to the adaptation, which is why i totally love the TV FL compared to the book FL. Although I usually dislike adaptations that don't adhere to the novel’s plot, it is not the case for this show. I truly think the adaptation is even better than the novel. Although the novel is filled with spicy, dark and lustful side of the ML, I actually liked the innocence of the couple on screen more. They definitely hired the right people for this production.

The only thing dragging down my rating is the songs. They're not too catchy and memorable. I only have plans to add 1 of the songs into my playlist, the rest are really just so-so.

Read More

Action packed with a rollercoaster of laughters and tears

The show is about a top assassin, Ren Xin, who had been framed and imprisoned of killing the empress of An kingdom, who happen to be her benefactor. She had to escape prison, fake her death, change her name to Ren Ruyi, and later reinfiltrated the An kingdom’s spy organization’s branch located in a rival kingdom to track down the mastermind behind the empress’s murder and avenge her. With a twist of fate, she encountered the head of spy organization of the rival country, Ning Yuanzhou, and striked a deal with him, tagging along with the envoy entourage to her own country to teach the envoy in return for NYZ gathering intel to help her get her revenge. Many things happened along the way, and she started forming a bond with the members of the spy agency in the entourage, and a special liking towards NYZ.

I like it how the show had a solid premise, good storyline and they executed it in perfect gracefulness and rather fast paced too. Although it started out in a serious and intense premise, they manage to blend goofy scenes seamlessly within. The goofy parts were well executed and didnt looked forced, leaving me smiling or laughing throughout - definitely didnt look out of place or annoying like those in Fighting for Love. Despite the goofy scenes, they were able to execute the action and serious scenes tremendously well too. The action scenes were superb, the choreography was on point and well executed. The intimate scenes between the leads were well paced. With this show i can really feel and make sense of how they fall in love with each other despite coming from rival kingdoms, without having senselessly overbearing and cringe-worthy proximity moments like those in Ancient Love Poetry.

The only show ive ever seen Liu Shishi in was Scarlet Heart, although she acted well in it, i felt that her face didnt really suit to be in ancient drama, cuz i thought she looked too modern. I changed my mind when i saw this show. Maybe its due to hairdo, costume, age or makeup, but she looked perfect in AJTL as a retired top assassin on a mission to avenge the death of the closest person to her. Now this character Ren Xin/Ren Ruyi is one of my favourite FLs of all tv shows I’ve seen so far, the writers wrote her really well with almost no flaw at all. She is strong, quick-witted, resourceful, brave, resolute and capable with a sound and collected mind despite facing conflicts of interest. Basically she is the badass of all badasses of the mortal world, while Shen Li from Legend of Shen Li wins that spot for the fairy fantasy category. Although ML being the understanding other half, contributed too. I liked A Mai from Fighting for Love too, but the writers slightly botched it with poor decision-making when in comes to love in the earlier part of the show. Ren Ruyi did not suffer from this. I guess I had to give it off to the the writers for not messing up. FL was constantly with a sound mind and not the type who would get emotional. Although she did went berserk quite a bit when the red uniform guards killed her adoptive mom, and ML ended up knocking her unconscious to stop her. But hey, even a flawless character had to have some flaw or else theyd be inhumans.

My most favourite character of the whole show is Yu Shisan, one of the spies in the envoy entourage. He’s easily the most handsome of the spy group, he’s not shy to flaunt it too as he is proud to be known as the shameless, flirty playboy who has a way with girls. He was extremely popular and admired by female inmates and workers in the prison (he was imprisoned for kidnapping a noble’s daughter) because he loves to do make up on them (and obviously because he flirts with them) before ML picked him up to join the entourage mission. He’s the goofiest person in the group, most of the goofy scenes are caused by him, but also the closest to ML, being a good listener and confidant to ML, especially with regards to dealing with FL. ML also revealed to Yu Shisan of how bad his condition was before the final showdown of the emperor rescue, and entrusted Yu Shisan to take the rest of the troop to safety if ML couldnt make it. And I totally ship him and Chu Yue. Theyre the cutest not-yet-a-couple ever!

Princess Yang Ying is probably the character with the most progress. She started off as an extremely timid, weak with zero self confidence, unfavored princess of the late emperor, born in the cold palace and looked down even by the palace maids, let alone the rest of the harem,but later grew into a full fledged ambitious, capable, confident, resourceful and quick-witted princess aiming for the throne. She is the youngest sister of the current emperor, who was lovesick with the only palace guard who showed her kindness thus willing to do anything to marry him. When her brother the emperor was taken hostage by Emperor of An kingdom, she volunteered to be the envoy to deliver the ransom in return for her to be granted fiefdom and ability to choose her own husband. Because one of the conditions of ransom is it must be delivered by a prince, she had to disguise as one and learn everything a prince should know during the trip. She was slow at learning at first, but the moment ML, as the head of security of the entourage, changed her tutor to FL, she made great progress in terms of learning capability and the building of her character as a pompous and snobbish prince with ample political & court knowledge. I must commend the actress, she definitely nailed it as a male impersonator. Although she looked soft and delicate as a princess, she also managed to pull off the look of a snobbish yet graceful teenage prince and as time passes, i no longer see her as a girl. This is the second character after Fighting for Love’s FL that I ever saw able to pull off as a male impersonator, and she did it perfectly well without even having to try too hard to act as a tough boy. I’m glad they didnt forget to bind her chest, i hate it when characters are portrayed to be disguising as a male and yet the chest totally gives them away, and lets not even get into the girly voice and acts. Fortunately, those cringy parts that give away male impersonation are nonexistent in this show. Well done!

Another interesting character is Qian Zhao, one of the spies with medical expertise. He’s literally the medic for the entourage. He is very quiet and reserved, only speaking when necessary, but in fact is very stubborn and steadfast in his decisions. Nobody could stop him when he set his mind to kill FL when he found out she was a spy from An, and everybody had a hard time persuading him against seeking revenge from Emperor Wu for his reckless decision of going to war with misleading intel and information which resulted in high war casualties. The only thing stopping him from finishing the emperor off was the flare signal from nearby fortress indicating that they were under attack. Even ML admitted in the end that he had everyone else figured out but Qian Zhao.

All in all i think the whole production team did a tremendously great job with this show. I really couldnt find any other loopholes other than the hand injury of Deng Hui that went missing the next day after his hand was stabbed by Emperor An. The make up artist and director must have forgotten the script. Anyway, I wonder who wronged the writer team so badly for them to come up with such a huge massacre of characters. It saddens me but the show was so good I cant seem to hate it for making me cry with each episode after Ep34. For a show that is laden with goofy scenes all over, i was so not ready for the last 6 episodes that are pretty tragic and tearjerker. Boy sometimes I hate this show for being so damn good at bringing laughter and tears to its viewers.

If youre like me who love shows with strong leads, action packed with non-domineeringly sweet and non-cringy love story, and do not mind a tragic-possible-emotional-damage-inducing ending, then this might be for you. If youre all that but cant handle super tragic ending, well, maybe stop watching at Episode 34, 35 is where the massacre starts. But if u want closure to all power struggles, then stop at 38. I just cant wrap it around my head why didnt they just end the show with 38. It was actually perfect. Somehow they just had to drag in more episode just to break our hearts. 😭

Despite hating the ending, I just cant seem to strike off a star from my 10 rating. The show was THAT good!

I am currently rewatching the show and realized ML’s near death situation on Ep 20 and his ultimate exit on Ep40 were both due to saving that brat I dont want to mention. The first time because that brat recklessly went for the leader of the assassins despite his mediocre (in my eyes) martial skills, and the second time when he again, stupidly went into the enemy’s camp ALONE to supposedly kill/capture the marshall. The first time, ML saved him because he was An emperor’s envoy keen for peace between the two kingdoms hence they needed his support, and the second time because he was An kingdom’s regent. Well, the second time was because he didnt want FL to go on the suicide rescue mission, and because he knew how much that brat meant to FL. This sorry piece of sh!t, gosh i hate him so much that I didnt want to even mention him when i wrote this review the first time because i didnt want to reveal spoilers, but when i am rewatching right now, damn i just had to say this at least once. Okay finish rant!

Read More

One of the best shows out there

I had to admit Zhang Ziyi was the main reason why I clicked this title. I thought she’d play a great empress or wife of a seasoned general. Was taken aback when she came up in 1st episode playing a teenager(15/16yo i think) instead. Wth? She looked like she could be the wife of the father! How ridiculous. And they didnt even put much effort in make up to have her look like a teenager. She looked bare faced throughout, although I admire her beauty, it’s definitely the beauty of a matured woman. I could accept if her role had been a princess in her 30s, but come on, to have 39yo to play a teenager/young adult role is pretty hilarious. She looked as old as the rest of the cast who plays the ministers and their consorts 🤦🏻‍♀️

However, I stuck through the show because it had a good storyline. She’s a talented actress, of course she could pull through despite the obvious seasoned look. I must say that this series is really fast paced, there are no wasted pointless scenes, and I can’t seem to put down the screen. One episode seduces me to continue to another and I feel bad when I had to put the screen down so my life wont be halted. I even brought the phone into the bathroom to watch while doing no 2 and bathing, finished bingeing all 68 episodes in 4 days!

Now this is the real palace conspiracy and politics is all about, it kept the audience on edge with one intense episode after another. I truly admire FL and ML. ML, although not handsome with rather big nose which bothered me during the earlier episodes, had me charmed with his outstanding performance. He looked perfect as the boorish man from a poor family background who spends his whole life on the battleground. He’s not flawlessly handsome with boyish look like the typical ML, he’s not ‘mad’ madly in love like any typical ML (and yet we can still feel his ultimate love for FL), and he carries the countenance of a courageous intelligent general and strategist really well. I like ML’s look with the goatie in the final parts though. He looked so much more handsome this way. I never liked men with face hair but he’s one of those men who looked extremely handsome with them.

This show is so good it even has one of the most intense, believable and astonishing battle scenes that I’ve seen on screen. My heart was pounding throughout the battle as I was anxious to see what would happen next. And whats more important is that they really go all out on the battle sequence, arrays, armors, heavy equipment and they don’t use CGI! Thats a pretty big WOW, right? The show really exudes magnificence and grandeur in every detail. I’m not sure how accurate to the book this show is, but I’m glad I didnt read the book beforehand else it wouldve ruinned the suspense.

Im just frustrated that in every scene of them reuniting, there are no touching moments. They just look at each other longingly and then the next scene came up where everyone’s safe. So frustrating. But honestly this is one of the best shows ive seen so far. Although I wouldnt rewatch the entire show, I definitely would rewatch some real good episodes. I am actually rewatching episodes with the main casts and battle scenes.

The only thing I dislike about this show is the fact that almost every other male character who is supposedly around the same age as FL’s character, and not related to her immediate family, seem to fall head over heels for her. Come on, they even made the supporting character to fall in love with her too! One of my pet peeves on dramas like this is when the FL seem to be the love interest of every other male characters, and they all obssess over her. Come on, so she’s a beauty, but to be the centre of everyone? So cliche!

Oh and I agree with other reviewers that the title doesnt really reflect on the story. Definitely not a Rebel Princess, FL was like one of the most obedient ones out there. Intelligent, yes, rebel, definitely a no. I guess they chose that title to make it intriguing. At least I clicked because of the title, then after reading the synopsis only knew that ZZY was in the lead casts. The story did not disappoint of course. One of the must watch shows out there and I would definitely recommend to people.

Read More

Pretty sad love story

I had just finished Legend of Shen Li, and was curious about Lin Geng Xin’s performance in Scarlet Heart as people had been writing good things about it. I have been putting this off for quite a while (actually ever since I finished Princess Agents in 2020) because I am not fond of palace drama, but i decided to give it a go after his stellar performance in LoSL.

Oh well, I was right all along, palace love drama is just not my thing. It was an ordeal to get through the episodes, they were so draggy with longwinded love triangles and political conspiracy drama(well its more to a picky father who is constantly angry at his sons, and of a brother who is constantly suspicious and angry at his brothers, a vast contrast from the true palace political drama like Joy of Life etc), especially when i dislike the ultimate love interest of the FL. The only consolation is seeing the development of 14th Prince friendship with FL even though I knew it had never been about love. Its her friendship with the princes that was beautiful, although I have always wondered how come such energetic and interesting character didnt have a single friend among the princesses. But hey I’m fine with that because if they were to add princess characters then the show might have to drag the episodes out over 50 to include more female drama. Still didnt stop me from wondering.

Anyway, I think it’s quite boring with FL’s inner battles and constant love conflicts. The brotherly love of the princes towards her is super sweet though, and that was among the things that kept me going. As I said, the genre isnt my cup of tea as I am more of wuxia/xianxia/action fan with strong FL characters who are not damsels in distress.

I dislike the ML right from the start, though, even when I didnt know he was the ML. I think Nicky Wu doesnt look good as a half bald man with pigtail, he looks weird and extremely unapealing. All the other princes look waaaaaay better than him and more handsome. As the show progressed, I fail to see any spark between FL and ML even as they were developing feelings for each other. It looked much too sudden that the FL would shift her love interest to the least caring prince among all, especially when she knew he would become the emperor which would mean a whole life of her tip-toeing around the volatile figure. Maybe it is just me, I just couldn’t see the the chemistry and explanation of how she would suddenly fall in love with him, especially when he forced himself on her the first time. Just because she didnt want to become Crown Prince’s consort so she suddenly asks to marry 4th prince? Damn thats too weak of a turning point.

I kinda gotten tired of how she would cry at everything too. She cries when she’s happy, she cries when she’s afraid and she obviously cries when she’s sad. She also has this one kind of expression on her face and that is what she wore throughout the show. I am not fond of her looks too, but hey, it kinda grows on you as the show goes on. It still didnt stop me from fast forwarding all those draggy love scenes though, especially the love scenes between the two (those after ML ascended the throne are even more cringier than others, thank god they were not many), I honestly enjoyed the arch on the 8th prince and 10th prince with their consorts and 13th prince with his mistress. Those felt more genuine than the main love story. 8th Prince story was the most devastating while 10th prince was the only one with a happy ending.

Even though I got tired of FL crying, I must admit there are scenes that moved me, like the one of her begging for 13th prince, the pure friendship turmoil between the princes and FL, and the one where she begged for 8th prince to divorce her sister who was in the verge of death. So much unrequited love in this show, it’s so tiring to feel for every one of them. They were all pitiful. Oh I think the one playing Ma’ertai Roulan is the most beautiful of all, she had the perfect look for ancient costume. Her character’s love story is so pitiful I couldnt help but feel her pain.

Despite the boring storyline and the excessive crying of the FL, one thing I really commend this show is how closely accurate to the history this show was. Between the plot of 4th prince usurping the throne and the emperor passing it to him, of course they would have to choose the more conflicting plot. The cast did a stellar job. And I’m soooo glad it had been only 35 episodes to endure compared to more than 50 episodes of other palace shows out there. Wished it was less. The first 10 episodes were soooo dragy it was such a pain to go through. But the last 5 episodes were golddddd! I never expected the surprise in Ep 33. 14th prince definitely became the star role in the last 3 episodes, he was practically the knight in shining armour whisking the maiden away to safety. No wonder people had been praising of LGX’s performance here. Before watching, I thought his role was a passing small role with little significance, which was also one of the reasons I kept putting off to watch the show.

I think the ending never bothered me because I never shipped the MC love story. It was an apt ending for both and everyone involved. Am so glad she died in 14th prince arms instead. The bosom childhood friend that she used to quarrel with and afraid of, but in the end became her saviour from the Forbidden City prison.

Read More

Smashing medical drama

This title is definitely smashing as medical drama, especially when they centre it around unpopular field - pain management and contraversial euthenasia. Such a fresh and rare aspect of the medical field.

I love every single part of the medical department, but abhorrr the romance department. At first i couldnt quite like the FL, kang si young, because she was such a crybaby and damn too clingy. And then i hated ML towards the end because of how he left FL hanging without so much of a word. Didn’t even finish watching the last episode cuz it’s too cringy for my liking.

I also think the ML is a coward when it comes to romance. it is always FL who is chasing after him, and even towards the end, he wouldnt speak his mind about his feelings for the FL without some nudging by others. What a lame guy. Dont know how many times did I roll my eyes at those scenes and end up fast forwarding them. Btw if it were me, I wouldve never gotten back to ML . Somebody who makes decisions about the relationship without even considering the other party’s views, even if he thought it was for her own good, is not fit for a relationship. Guess he expects his other half to just read his mind and be understanding and just agree with whatever decision he makes about their relationship. 🙄 So yeah. Hated every part of the romance scenes, i fast forwarded most of it especially those of the side couples. I’ve had my fill cuz i was only watching for the intense medical parts and not the cheesy romance.

Read More

I would want a lawyer like Cheon too!!

I had little expectation for this show as I had just recovered from the awful Doctor Lawyer.

The story is about a quirky lawyer who charges only 1000 won of consultation fee to his clients. He is crazily goofy with mysterious background but clearly has an exceptional investigative techniques. While FL is a pampered granddaughter of a lawfirm moghul who is also a lawyer in training. She first met ML in the courtroom as he represented a pickpocket suspect while she the prosecutor in training. They started off really bad and she had real horrible impression of him. As her training term ended in the prosecution office, she was expected to finish training in a lawfirm, which her grandfather moghul tasked her to go to ML’s firm instead of the his lawfirm, the Baek Law Firm. That is the start of their adventure unraveling the ugly reality of white collar criminal world.

I especially ship the love story in this show although it was shown as ML’s past only. In this part of the story, ML as the junior prosecutor was really quiet, cold and reserved but fierce in the courtroom. He didnt make many friends at work, and people call him the crazy person from seong dong. He didnt speak to people unnecessarily and Lee Juyeong, an attorney from Baek Law Firm, represented the person he was prosecuting, and called him an antisocial. But she was attracted to him after their first courtroom session, and kept appearing around him when he least expected it. She didnt look desperate or clingy, just curious and fascinated at how ML carries himself. She wanted to be friends with him, and said that if she managed to make him smile for the third time, he would have to go on a date with her. LJY managed to make him smile three times, and they stayed friends for two years before he went down on his knees to ask for her hand in marriage. That scene was truly unexpected cuz ML had always been reserved and cold, he never really express how he feels to others. Although his proposal had been sudden, i could feel the spark between them. It proves that you dont need any awkward proximity scenes between the ML and his love interest to show that they fell for each other, and you dont need staring contests between the them to display their deep love for each other. Mind you, they dont even share romantic, cheesy dialogue with each other, the most romantic thing they did was to hold each others’ hand, and yet i could feel their chemistry and love for each other. It’s truly beautiful and I cried hard when the incident happened which robbed her from ML. The story started off so goofy of ML as the attorney that I never expected how emotional the scenes from ML’s past would be.

I totally love love love the supporting character Na Yejin, the senior of ML in the prosecution service. Her character was so laid back in the beginning i thought she’s just a minor neglectable role. Damn she appeared more and more towards the end and became ML’s key in prosecution to take down the bad guys. I love her cool and yet take no nonsense character. I love her attitude, her expressions, the way she talks, well everything about her! The actress is really good.

ML is shown to be goofy and acts like a coward, but when needed he could fight his way out and take down the enemy. They dont have much of fighting scenes, but it doesnt bother me as an action packed freak, because this show is anything but boring.

I hope there’d be season 2 although i highly doubt it. I wish more of kdrama would follow american series format that renews every year, like The First Responder or Taxi. Kdrama has lots of promising and good series that can be a syndicate, like Prosecutor for Justice, GRID, The First Responder and Taxi, but they rarely go for it. It’s just too bad.

Read More

Fighting for the right cause with a huge price

I was attracted to Love in Pavilion without knowing anything of the Fox Spirit Matchmaker universe, solely due to Liu Shishi after her superb performance in A Journey to Love. Although she hasnt climbed into my favourite actress list yet to stand alongside Zhao Liying, she definitely left a mark in my mind.

The story is really engaging from start to finish without much boring scene. The opening scene of the masked group joining hands with the Dongfang sisters to fight off demons already ignited enough spark to keep me watching. Then the clash at the Nan Gong household only fuels the fire even more.

They didnt leave us the audience to lament in sorrow much after our main leads started to fall out due to FL Dongfang Huaizhu’s distaste of political strategic manoevres by ML Wangquan Hongye, as they pitched in the ‘back to the future’ arc as ML went to rescue FL 20years in the future. Then came the Beast Kingdom part where they started to get lovey dovey and then the showdown in Tushan & Beyond the Boundary. Real fast paced despite being a show about love stories.

Although I fast forwarded much of romance scene of the other side couple (but not enough to miss the whole of their own love story), basically I get the gist that this is a show that lays out multiple love stories around the main leads. Some unrequited and many managed to get reciprocated although all met with a tragic ending.

Basically this is one of the superhero story of how huge power comes with huge responsibility and may cost you your whole life.

Liu Shishi is gorgeous as ever, of course, i think she ages like wine. She looked better in ancient costume now compared to the one I saw when she was younger. Her talent is unquestionable, she carries her character well as the gentle and aloof but strict Dongfang Huaizhu, then a 180deg turn as the evil and scheming Left Guardian Huaizhu of Sky City 20 years in the future. Her romance scenes are all on point except for the kissing part cuz she looked rather stiff. But romance and sad scene are definitely her forte!

I am not familiar with the actor playing ML, but I just thought he looked weird and too pale here. Do they purposely do his make up to look like a vampire? He looked so pale and gaunt. But putting aside his looks, his acting is equally superb with Liu Shishi’s, especially the sad scenes. Simply powerful. But to be honest I kinda prefered if the one who played Zhang Zheng to cast as ML instead. He had the looks of handsome, decisive and scheming person. 😬

The songs are so pleasing and brilliant, especially the opening OST Divine Fire by Yang Bing Yin, oh gosh so beautifully done. I have a playlist costume drama OST that I listen to when I run, and realized that most of the songs here mostly sung by Yang Bing Yin, Zhou Shen, Sa Ding Ding, Liu Yuning and Zhang Bichen. I guess my ears also have a preference. So yeah I’m adding Divine Fire to this playlist next. The slow songs for romantic scenes are equally great, although I wouldn’t add them as I am not into slow type of songs.

This is the third show I’ve seen with Liu Shishi as the FL, somehow it makes me wonder if she has the tendency to pick stories with tragic ending? 😆 but honestly, i must thank the super traumatic character massacre of A Journey to Love for hardening me to face tragic endings in other shows. They don’t affect me much anymore after I cried buckets for A Journey to Love.

All in all, if you hate sad endings and can’t handle them, then avoid the Fox Spirit Matchmaker series (3 in total - Love in Pavilion, Sword and Beloved and Red Moon Pact) at all cost. But if you love the actions and can handle tragic endings fine, then hell yeah you can definitely binge this! This is definitely one of the best productions of 2025.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I cant get over the last arc at the Beyond the Boundary. It’s totally the others’ fault that they still follow ML even as he already left them to go alone into the Boundary despite knowing their future. i mean, at least ML tried to change something by leaving them behind. And the fact that they didn’t help much other than making things worse for ML is even more frustrating. Their fights didnt weaken the Black Fox, in fact only feeds its power as their hatred after seeing their beloved getting killed is absorbed by Black Fox. More importantly had Yang Yitan remained behind, Black Fox wouldnt have known all ML’s moves in advance and ML’s shield wouldnt have been broken.

The Black Fox only started to engage and absorb the Grief Tree in Tushan’s power (at which point FL can start to purify the tree, thus weakening Black Fox) after ML started to go crazy when his sister was killed and seeing all the others dead. This wouldnt have happened if they had stayed behind as per ML’s original plan. I believe if ML hadnt been distracted and his mental strength weakened after seeing their deaths, he wouldnt have been controlled so easily by the Black Fox to kill himself. After all, all she did to convince ML to kill himself was by blaming the others’ death on him. So yeah, i think the real reason why ML’s life was ripped to shreds was due to the other Masked Group members who recklessly and stupidly follow him across the Boundary.

Read More

Mediocre Plot but with satisfying ending

It’s about a former-policeman-now-bodyguard who is on a path of revenge for his best buddy’s death at the hands of a murder-for-hire. He suspected the commissioner for stopping his investigation into the death, resigned and stayed in Manila where his friend was killed to gather intel. It led him to Hwain Corporation when he was following a lead and inadvertently rescued the director for Now Foundation, a subsidiary of Hwain. He then secured a job as bodyguard to the director and started to poke his nose into the power struggle in the chaebol family which unravel twists that he never imagined, capturing the director’s heart in the process.

Maybe I had my bar too high after watching Blood Free, this show somehow fell short to become an utter disappointment to me. Although the outline of the story is the same - enforcer turn bodyguard going undercover to catch the killer of best friend, falling in love while doing so - the tension and smoothness of the story flow had not been like Blood Free, and the romance thrown into it is just too awkward for someone bearing as big a vengeance as the ML. At least the hint of romance was very vague with Blood Free, whereas it had been too quick and too obvious for Red Swan. It’s understandable if it was the FL who was quick to fall for him, after all she had been in a loveless marriage for so long, but for the ML to fall in love at first sight like he did is just too unreal to digest. I also failed to feel the spark between them.

I also thought the FL looked too old compared to ML, maybe thats why i couldnt feel the spark? I know Rain isnt that young, but the FL just looked much older than him. I couldnt figure out what age the roles are supposed to be, but my guess would be late 30s early 40s maybe? Well out of curiosity I looked up the casts, no wonder she looked old, she was indeed older than ML and SML.

The fight choreography is top notch tho. I like how characters dont recover so fast from injuries like in most shows.

If youre not too into romance, this might not be for you. the romantic scenes made me cringe. I wanted to see the action, not longing stares between the leads, awkward hugs and cringy conversations.

Read More

A show with mixed vibe

The show starts off with FL, Maisui, trying to find her adopted brother, Chen Qi, who killed her whole family back when she was barely 10yo. Her journey was entangled with many people of interests, mainly the ML, adopted son of Marquis Dingnan Shang Yizhi, who was actually son of the previous Crown Prince, and SML, a general of noble birth of a rival kingdom Chang Yuqing. She drafted into the army to search for the real mastermind behind her family’s extermination, inadvertantly rising to power from a mere foot soldier to the marshall of an army.

This show has a very good storyline, as badly of an adaptation as it is, the only drawback is how badly the characters are written except for FLOkay they kinda messed up FL a little bit too but it’s acceptable. Compared to the book, they totally dumbed down ML from a proficient yet extremely ruthless and shrewd military officer who is also renowned for his excellent archery skills, to a basic puppet general who is madly in love and with no skills at all, how frustrating. But the biggest flunk of this adaptation piece is probably how they turned the show into ML’s story instead of FL’s as written in the novel, and changed the ML from Chang Yuqing to Shang Yizhi. Although the main character is Maisui throughout the novel, there are definitely more significant encounters of her with Chang Yuqing, more romance and grudge between them, but more importantly, the story shouldve been about Maisui and Chang Yuqing instead of Maisui and Shang Yizhi. Shang Yizhi is like the third wheeler in the novel, he got much lesser mention in the novel and definitely not a focus of the whole story.

Book aside, I’m actually impressed that it has the most convincing male impersonation by the FL. She was beautiful when dressed as a woman, but also manly as a man. She looks rough like a boy, she acts rough like a boy, she has a deep voice, and she doesnt have even a tinge of girlish trace on her when she was dressed like a man. Her complexion is even more tanned (indicating that she had had a hard life) than ML and SML (i commend the make up artist). Had she had a bigger body build, she wouldve passed 100% as a man and no one wouldve guessed she could be a female. When she was training in the army, she did everything everyone else does with no exception. She could wield the sword very well too and didnt look like it was flailed around her. However, in the book, she was supposed to be 1.7m, which would make her height not much difference from an average man. But in the adaptation, she was easily the shortest and smallest one around.

The only thing I dislike about this character is how easily she had fallen for ML. She initiated the first kiss (on the lips mind you!) and it happened out of nowhere! Like come on! There’s no spark and she suddenly falls in love? They barely have any chemistry too! Because they wrote ML to be this foolish stupid brat who never grow up despite his hardship (because he always has backup in the right places), and FL being the matured woman who grew up on the streets with wit and intelligence, both of them looked more like siblings instead of lovers, FL being the elder sister and ML the stupid younger brother. It’s so damn cringy each time they hug or kiss. Despite her shortcoming, I think she was the most pitiful character, as well as Chen Qi. Theyre merely the victims of court politics and selfish emperors.

FYI in the book, the first kiss was with Chang Yuqing, initiated by FL, but as a guise for her to escape from Chang Yuqing’s mansion when she was taken prisoner. I really cant get over the fact that they decided to change the ML from CYQ to SHZ. CYQ is obviously much more interesting of a character than SYZ!

Other important characters they didnt botch are Princess Shenghua (ML’s adopted mom and real aunt), General Tang and Mr Xu. They remained consistent throughout, although Princess Shenghua changed a bit from a loving innocent looking woman to a scheming one. But I still like this character because she is among the sound of reason around ML.

On to my most cringey character, the ML. He must have been the most useless and weakest ML I’ve ever seen. He has absolutely no strong points at all, other than being kind hearted. It’s a total contrast to the Shang Yizhi depicted in the novel. He’s also too madly in love with FL that he would disregard a whole army’s lives just to save FL in situations that FL wouldve survived on her own, a total contrast to the book SYZ who would even sacrifice FL on the battleground for his own victory, that’s how big a shrewd he is. The book SYZ is so ruthless that he punished FL to be whipped 200times just because she was late to muster, because she drank wine with Tang Shaoyi the night before, and this happened when SYZ is already interested in FL, as he knew she was a woman very early on. Meanwhile, The adaptation SYZ has no deduction, analytical nor strategical skills and boasted to be extremely kind-hearted and soft. This version of SYZ could only survive as a puppet general just because he had FL and Mr Xu as his strategists, Lieutenant (later general) Tang Shaoyi for his muscle, and they do all his thinking and actions for him. Had he not have these people, he wouldnt survive a minute into a battle. Heck, he wouldve been dead before he could even assume the role at all. I am quite disappointed at how badly this character is written, because he had many chances to grow up and mature but it seemed that he never did. The book SYZ is a million times more interesting than this one. In the show, He was stupid, reckless and short-sighted as a bratty son of a noble family, and he was still the same as a Marshall of a huge army and even after becoming an emperor. It’s pathetic that even as emperor he still looks at Mr Xu asking what he should do to save FL’s life when she was set up by the ministers. What a loser, still clueless and stupid even after spending all those years on the battlefield with the brightest minds of the kingdom. And that naughty comedic tune whenever he was fooling around with FL is so annoying that I can never take this character seriously. His fake laugh also makes him sound stupid and foolish too. He drastically changed into a selfish and an evilly scheming man in the end which made me loath him even more. Now that is one similarity that they manage to capture the same as the novel. The book SYZ is as selfish and ruthless as the adaptation SYZ after he became an emperor. They are both greedy to cage FL in the palace as concubine, and theyre both scheming and shrewd who caused the demise of FL’s important people.

As for the emperor, I have Never seen an emperor so eager to kill his leading generals in the midst of a war with neighbouring country. Like seriously? He’s killing them left and right with no reason but fear of revolt. He would rather lose people whom he could rely on to defend and strengthen his empire as long as he can quench his thirst for absolute power with no contention. He was so messed up in the head that he doesnt even remember why he ordered for FL’s father to killed, a leading general of his too. All he knew was, “What if he pointed his sword at me? How will I defend myself,” I really wonder how does he think he can protect the throne from rival country forces when he has no capable generals to ward them off his land? Fear has ruled his world and messed up his head. The way they portray this character is also messy. Never seen an emperor so haggard and and beggarish looking like this one. He was distraught all the time and never looked like he can run a country. No wonder his sons are out of control and his court is in chaos with ministers scheming and stabbing each other.

The final 5 episodes are so boring, mainly on palace political scheming and harem jealousy. I like it how FL never dressed up as a girl even after she was forcefully created as Imperial Consort, even when ML summons her to see him in the palace.

Loved the final episode. Its a perfect ending. Glad they stayed true to the book for the ending. And it’s nice to see her wear her hair as a girl and no longer had to disguise as a man. But I’m still striking a star off for making the story deviate from the novel. The novel storyline is so much much better.

Read More

Fast Paced, Gripping Plot, Subtle Romance - exactly the way i like it!

An informer from out of the town was killed together with his daughter on the streets of the capital and caught the attention of the Interior Guard Services and Court of Judicial Review. One of the killer was apprehended before he could kill himself, but before proper interrogation can be done, he was mysteriously killed in his cell. A mortician, Gao Bingzhu, stepped forward to admit the murder and was taken into custody immediately. On his way during prison transfer, he was attacked but managed to survive by killing the assassin. But because he fled the scene, all the deaths of the guards were pinned on him, and because he was spotted at a minister’s mansion during his son’s wedding, the minister’s death was also pinned on him. A huge chase ensued between the Interior Guard and ML, headed by Wu Siyue, FL. But as she pursued the fugitive, more truth started to come out one by one, and made her question if he was truly the criminal she should be after.

One thing that is obvious about the show is it’s extremely fast paced from episode 1. I’ve never seen a mystery/investigative drama made this excellent. Mystery/investigative genre has never been my go-to drama, cuz they usually bore me to death, i have dropped many of such drama that it became my bane genre. But somehow this title attracted my attention upon reading the many positive comments. I had to say the thing that attracted me is when they said the FL is strong and brilliant. It definitely did not disappoint. There was so much action going on, a lot of fighting and chasing. However the cameraworks made me dizzy cuz sometimes they set the POV on the characters involved during the chase, with the shaking and jittering of the camera as if the cameraman was running with the cast. How the relationship between the main characters come together is also done brilliantly well. A fugitive, an enforcer, an eccentric anti-social youth sound like an unexpected combination, but they came together flawlessly. And the plot twist in the last 3 episodes is definitely unexpected. The useless character turned out to be the most vital of all. i totally did not see it coming. The excellence of this adaptation made me want to read the novel to see how much they deviate from the original work.

Am really impressed with the actor playing Gao Bingzhu. I first saw him in The Mutation and it didnt leave much of an impression on me, and since this is just a filler title that i picked up as i wait for full release of Shadow Love episodes, I had little expectation, especially when it was a mystery/investigative drama. I had a bad experience with The Wanted Detective so I only started on this title solely due to the many positive comments of it and my hunch. And boy I am not disappointed at all. Huang Xuan definitely gave his all to this character, he was fierce and grudgeful when facing the enemy, nimble and powerful when he was fighting off the bad guys, and yet his anguish and sadness was so exceptionally conveyed in his sad scenes. I teared seeing him crying his eyes out, having to bottle everything up for 5 whole years living in guilt made the well burst big time. And to finally know who the assassin really was broke him even further. Who wouldve thought a guy from the slum who has nothing to his name, not fame, not glory, not even money, had two women fawning over him, ready to die for him? And yet he was not meant to be with either of them. What a sad, broken man he is. He has my 10 rating for his performance here. Totally changed my view of him from where i saw him first on The Mutations.

I really like the FL Wu Siyue played by Victoria. She is a proud, strong, brilliant, stubborn woman with great martial art. She works at Interior Guards Services that are mainly guards for the royals. The head of the service was her brother and she hated being known as Madam Wu as it would link her to her brother and gives an impression that she was there due to privelege of connections. Although she and ML started out as enforcer and fugitive, she began to empathize with him after they got through life and death together, and decided to help him uncover the truth. And most importantly, this character doesnt need constant saving like the usual FL, because:

1. They have a character who is the don-in-distress which is the SML,
2. She and ML alternately saves each other 😆

Oh boy, i really love ML and FL chemistry. There’s just one thing that always bothered me with this character, that is how weird her hairline was. The wig looks too obvious and not streamline enough, which gives it away. There are many close ups of FL, so her hairline always becomes the first thing that grabbed my attention. Not trying to nitpick really, i am aware that female characters usually wear wigs especially to make up the buns on their heads and its length, but this is the first time that saw a weird hairline on a female character so it catches my attention each time. Wardrobe and make up department were not meticulous enough in this part.

Anyway, on a side note, how Wu Siyue confronted her colleague and the antagonist, believing they could not have been the real criminal/traitor despite many evidence against them is how I expected Xueman from The Wanted Detective shouldve behaved with her husband who was obviously set up. Not emotional, very clear-headed, objective, and not strike the other party at first sight. The reason why i dropped that title was because the FL is written to be so incoherent with her supposedly brilliant background. Screenwriters should work harder to make their main characters believable and not contradict its nature that they created, like how Louyang’s brilliant screenwriters did.

The SML, Baili Hongyi, is an anti-social, aloof and hard-headed second son of the Baili family who is renowned for their crasftmenship. Baili Yan, his father, was the Minister of Works, and he too worked in the same ministry before his resignation. Known as a talented and educated most eligible bachelor, he is also known as a food reviewer, a highly sought after one by restaurants in the capital that were willing to go tooths and nails to get into his review waiting list. His life is considered sheltered, before the murder of his father on his wedding day, which plunged the family into the whirlpool of conspiracy and sinister plots of the court. This character reminds me a lot of the FL in Melody of a Golden Age. One who doesnt know any self defense, keeps poking his nose where it didnt belong not bothering to inform anyone of his whereabouts, and keep needing saving when he’s stuck in a tight spot during his investigation. If MoGA’s FL keeps needing saving by the ML (yea the rule of the script kind), this Baili Hongyi keeps needing saving by either FL or ML, and most of the time by both 😆.

I never liked characters who throws themselves cheaply at the one they love, especially when the person doesnt like them back, Liu Ran played by Song Yi was such character. But her devotion to Baili Hongyi even when he was so cold towards her somewhat grew on me. I didnt like this character in the beginning, but her patience and indulgence made her character hard to hate when it was towards the middle. I feel sorry for her, but i still couldnt ship them both. The awkward scenes between them as they were supposed to warm up to each other look too forced, especially Liu Ran’s desperate acts in attracting Baili’s attention. I feel like their couple story is a waste of time and takes too much off the fast-paced plot. Maybe theyre supposed to be the tension relief to the gripping storyline, but i feel that their romance isnt necessary.

I am more interested in the subtle attraction between Gao Bingzhu, Wu Siyue and Yao Niang cuz they didnt have to try too hard to make it work. The ambiguity of their relationship is somewhat more intriguing than the married one, even though i’ve always had a soft spot for marriage of convenience where the love grows after marriage than before. That said, this character began to get on my bad side when she started to cling to Baili unnecessarily, getting in the way of his investigation efforts and disrupting his plans. Maybe this character really had a purpose - to be the SML’s bane on his road to the truth 🙄 other than her irritatingly coquettish crybaby personality, the notion that 80% of her script only contains the word “Er Lang” is also rather annoying.

And what’s up with FL’s bro Wu Youjue? I didnt see him doing anything about the informer case that the empress asked him to investigate, and yet when there is progress, he was the one being rewarded bu the empress when everything was from FL’s efforts. It seems like the only thing he does on the show was to threat to kill people whenever FL goes missing or in danger while investigating the very thing the empress asked. She’s just doing her job, it’s her job to be in the middle of danger, she was supposed to protect the capital after all 🙄 if you don’t want her to be in danger then why did you let her enter the service in the first place? This character is very hot-tempered and ridiculous, threatening people left and right just because his sister goes missing, lol is this supposed to be the head of a department? So unprofesional and unrealistically impractical incompetent fool is all he is. How laughable. All he knows is to blame everyone around him for any mishap that his sister encounters. I wish somebody would just smack some senses into his empty skull for once. It’s really funny that the empress think so highly of him when he literally does nothing in the background but cough all day long. And whats even funnier is that the court won’t accept a talented man with an extra finger but is fine having a sickly man lead two departments that deals with security of the kingdom. Thats even more laughable than Wu Youjue’s ridiculous temper! However as the story unfolds, I started to understand the reason this character exists, though I am still puzzled why Liu Feng was thrown into the plot. Now this character’s utter pointlessness level is off the charts.

I really love the comic relief Bai Lang. He was there almost every time ML needed some helping hand. He is like his unofficial sidekick. Bai Lang was one of the kids ML knew from Unwelcomed Well who got away and made a living in the capital. He was originally a swindler to get by day by day, until he met ML again while he was fleeing the interior guards.

It’s a first time that i saw in ancient costume drama where the characters stop at a post station to change horses before continuing their pursuit. Before this i’ve only read such practices in novels where long and hasty journey would require frequent change of mounts since the horses are made to run all the way and without this change they wont be able to cover the intended distance before the horses tire themselves out. Such attention to details shows how meticulous the production is.

It’s too bad the soundtracks here aren’t much of an impress. Only 2 caught my attention but unfortunately it’s too slow to be included into my running playlist.

All in all, it was an extremely fun ride eventhough the ending might not fly with some audience.

Read More

Promising Story that Could Have Been Better

Chu Qiao woke up to find herself a slave in Yuwen household after surviving a nerve-wrecking cruelty at the hands of the noble youngsters - becoming a target in their hunt, fighting off wolves in the process while trying to escape their arrows. The sole survivor of the ordeal, she was left to recuperate by herself in a shed in Yuwen household, where she found out that her other name was Jiang Xiao Liu, and that her adoptive brothers and sisters were also slaves in Yuwen household. As she tries to survive in the compound, she decided to try to catch the 4th master eyes, Yuwen Yue, for protection, while she look for ways to escape. Yuwen Yue realized her potential when he saw how she survived the hunt, and took her under his wings and began training her to become a spy. Yuwen Yue was actually the heir to a spy network for the kingdom, as his grandfather had been its leader. Just when he thought he began to feel differently towards her, Chu Qiao found an opening to escape the household and went along with Yanxun, a hostage prince from Yanbei whom she befriended while living in Yuwen household, as he was going to return to Yanbei. To their dismay, the emperor’s approval for him to return to Yanbei was a ruse to execute his entire clan for mutiny. Yanxun was placed under house arrest with only Chu Qiao by his side. Drawn to Yanxun due to his ordeal which she felt similar to hers, she stayed with him during the house arrest, and together, they started to devise a huge plan to escape the capital and return to Yanbei.

First off, although I loved Chu Qiao as a character, i found Zhao Liying rather stiff at times. I loved her chemistry with Lin Geng Xin who played Yuwen Yue though. They rocked the relationship even though they mostly bicker with each other after her escape from the capital. Lin Geng Xin was okay here, and i love his ice lake scene the most. His anguish when he realized he could not be with Chu Qiao due to the difference of allegience was genuinely conveyed. Zhao Liying could really cry too. The ending was devastating and I cried each time the scene comes on.

The costumes are so smart looking, even the women dresses are so nice. And dont let me start with the songs, gosh the songs are truly the bomb. This is the first drama that I saw of Zhao Liying, which i first watched in 2020 during the covid lockdown, and I instantly became a fan. I rewatch this now for the 3rd time i think, cuz the sequel is coming up next year.

Although the ending ripped my heart to pieces, reading the novel definitely provided some consolation, since the novel was indeed a thousand times better than the adaptation.the novel Chu Qiao and Yuwen Yue were even more badass than depicted on screen. I know the production could not help but tweak the storyline since transmigration/rebirth plots are frowned upon in China, but mannn, they really missed out a lot and instead created many plotholes in the adaptation. I guess I can only dream of the novel becoming real on screen.

Read More

Selfless and Selfish Love

Helian Xi’s last memory before dying had been his wife stabbing him in the heart. Somehow he came back to life to see his whole Liangchuan clan attacked by Yangzhou, his wife Princess Feng Yuan from Yangzhou is believed to be one of the culprits. Because he had pledged to safeguard the safety of his people with his blood, the clan was saved by sealing them in a divine tree in Lingchuan. Once sealed, the tree died and only with the return of the twinned branch in ML and FL’s possession can the tree be revived and the clansmen restored to life. ML went on rampage in Yangzhou palace for revenge and to find his wife so he could take back her twinned branch, but unfortunately she was nowhere to be found. Fast forward 3 years later, the Crown Prince of Shouyun was supposed to wed his sweetheart Liangchan, but she was attacked before the wedding. The masked men had wanted to end her life but was intervened by ML. He discovered that Liangchan looks exactly like his wife. He kidnapped her but found out Liangchan had no memories about her past life prior to 3 years ago. ML made an agreement with Crown Prince to let Liangchan regain her memories before doing anything. But when she started to remember, things turn out to be very different from what ML had remembered it to be.

I can say this show probably has a quite high budget. The pictures, the props, the actors, the edits are actually pretty impressive for a miniseries. At least it surpassed my expectation. The actors are very talented and able to portray their characters convincingly well. ML and FL’s expressions are on point and can really deliver. They looked good together too, i can feel the spark even when ML was supposed to hate FL before he knew what really happened. The conflicted and longing look of his was very convincing, that I-really-wanna-kill-you-but-I-love-you kind of look. The plot is engaging and amazingly did not have much plotholes expected from miniseries. The songs are great too. So nice and didnt sound cheap and copied at all.

Gotta to warn readers this story is very dark, gloomy and sad. A beautiful story, but not for those who can’t handle sappy drama.

SPOILER BEYOND THIS LINE____________








The only thing that ticks me is the ending. FL’s ending is pretty much expected, i dont really have a problem with that, but for the ML i think they really botched it. How come a leader of a tribe who also has a daughter in tow could make that decision? It looked stupid and selfish, unbecoming of the ML’s character as a leader who treasures his clan in the beginning of the show. As i dont believe in suicides in the name of love, i deem it stupid, weak and selfish, awfully disrespectful to FL’s sacrifice. At least hers was made for the whole clan and cant be considered suicide cuz am pretty sure FL would really want to live if she could survive the twinned branch extraction. A real man and leader wouldnt have made that decision that ML did. What, just because the main villain died and the clan is back to life, now he can abandon them to their own devices, disregarding their future and even his daughter’s? He didnt even appoint a proper leader to succeed him! What a selfish and shortsighted man! Awfully disappointing so am taking off 1 and a half star for that. Good thing is at least the side couple came through.

Read More

Not a Zombie Show

Not quite a zombie series, but more to alien invasion, although the invasion only happened to this one tiny island. Chu Sijing, a jinyiwei captain, came to the Ninghai in the name of investigating a plague, where Bo Yan, a Ninghai army sergeant was assigned to be his guide cum assistant during this investigation. The Ninghai army was not as welcoming as they saw him as a representative of the people of the court who is looking for an excuse to stop the building of the Ninghai wall, so they keep refusing to cooperate to ML’s demands about the strange disease going on the camp. During one of his night ventures, he came across a group of islanders doing shady business, who ran off upon seeing him. As he was chasing them, he was stopped by Captain Lei. This picqued his interest to go to Wumu Island to investigate them, thinking the army was trying to hide something by denying his request to visit the island. And as he swam to the island with Bo Yan guiding him, they discovered a more sinister mystery running rampant on the island that could jeopardize the army and the kingdom’s general population as a whole.

At first the story sold the cult idea, then mystical powers, and eventually turned out to be an alien entity who was trying to control the human population. It’s kinda weird because of the ancient setting, I kinda think it wouldve been more interesting had in been in a modern time.

It’s the first time I saw Sandrine Pinna, she played a portuguese captain with a mission to bring back one of the monsters to present to her emperor. I think it is rather weak to have a foreigner to risk all her men just to help ML fight off the power behind the monsters. Somehow that doesn’t fly. And why would a bunch of portuguese sailors speak spanish? Lol. I wonder if the term “to shoot/fire” is really fire in spanish. Sounded like a direct translation. Because to shoot in malay wouldve been “tembak” and not “api (fire)”. 🤭

I’m not sold on the ending too. Why would Wo Zhan the alien entity would want to strike any deal with ML? did it really think ML was really “that” special and that it could control him like it did his twin bro? I had a hard time concentrating to the show, maybe thats why i might have missed things here and there. I dont know, this show somehow lack the wow factor to keep the audience on screen. It’s a drag to finish it, and it only had 12 episodes!

Read More

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 😆

Read More