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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.

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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.

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Subpar execution, expected twists, predicted ending.

A doctor was framed for malpractice, forced to admit guilt, had his medical license revoked and jailed for two years only to return as a lawyer 5 years later to exact revenge against those who threw him under the bus.

Kinda lame storyline, right? Wait til u see the ML, he’s even worse. Can only hold one type of expression throughout the show - furrowed eyebrows, agitated/confused eyes with constipated look. A pure downer when the main poster made him look so dashing and sinister. The only things that kept the show from falling apart are the fiery prosecuter ex fiancee of his - the FL, and the conniving korean american lobbyist - the SML - who keeps stirring the pot with unexpected moves.

The ending plottwist is also expected, u kinda get the hints as the show progressed cuz they showed too much. I wouldve prefered if they had made do without those hints.

I wish these kdrama directors would make their actors who supposedly play characters that lived abroad to take conversational english classes so that they can deliver their english lines right. It’s really cringy to see how these supposedly koreans living abroad who came back only to speak English that no audience can really understand. The only one who can speak decent english on this show is Jayden’s sidekick. Honestly I dont really expect them to speak with an accent like native speakers, but at least pronounce them right so people can understand without relying on the english subs. So far that i’ve seen, the only character that managed to pull off korean-living-abroad role is Stella Hwang from Partners for Justice, and thats because the actress Stephanie Lee is Korean American. That is how the english should be delivered for roles who are supposed to be from abroad. And if the actors cant speak it, the least the directors could do is not include english in their lines. It makes the roles less convincing when they speak poor english.

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A merman was caught by an evil fairy Shunde, a disciple of the Immortal Master who basically revered by all beings in the immortal realm as he is the most powerful. He was sent to Flower Valley, one of the places where Spiritual Masters whose sole job as the enforcer of the realm’s rule lives. They catch and neutralize spirits and immortals who violated this rule. The merman was sent to be trained by Ji Yunhe and Young Master of the valley, where he was supposed to submit and serve as Shunde’s attendant. Ji Yunhe has always been renowned for her skill of taming spirits and immortals by manipulating their hearts while Young Master and the rest of the spiritual masters usually resort to more violent means.

As she started to manipulate the merman to win his trust, little did she know she would fall in love with his absolutely innocent nature. At first she was just doing it because it was her task, and that she needed to win the competition so she would be able to escape from the valley with her little attendant Luoluo to live in an immortal island free of restraint and control, but as she got to know the merman and how he was wrongfully taken by Shunde, she later decided to help him escape. The merman fell in love with Ji Yunhe and gave up his tail and pearl for her, only to be heartbroken by Ji Yunhe, done so that he would be willing to run away from Shunde’s clasp without her. The merman held huge grudge against Yunhe for deceiving him and betraying his love, and this sets out a series of misunderstandings, breaking of hearts and mind, in their journey to finding a true meaning to love and friendship.

This show has the most pitiful character of all that ive seen/read so far. Ji Yunhe had been tortured and in pain for most of her life, being used as experiment subject by Master of the Valley and later embroiled in the power struggle of the world. She was physically tortured when she was in Flower Valley and Immortal Master’s Mansion, she was mentally tortured when she was in North Abyss, went through separations and deaths, and yet she still stood tall, not losing faith in life and humanity. She was stubborn and steadfast despite all hurdles that come her way. Dilraba has once again proven me wrong, she’s not just a pretty face. Her chemistry with the co-star is stunningly strong. Although i think she would have to work on the ‘sick look’ more, other than droopy eyes and weak neck. The time when she was waiting for death at North Abyss while being mentally tortured by ML began to look cringy as it dragged for so long. I get the arc was long because they wanted to show how badly ML was hurt by Yunhe’s refusal to admit her love for him, but like i said before, the droopy eyes and weak neck got cringier as the show went on (taking half a star off for this). I like the reborn arc. She was the happiest and most adorable in this. The reunion was also cute.

My first expression when I saw the snippet of the show was that the ML didnt quite have any appeal. I have never seen his work before so I dont have any expectation, but as i watched on, he turned out to have given a spectacular performance. He nailed it as a wary person wrongfully captured even though he hadnt spoken a word, he nailed it again as a person who was innocent and childlike, and he did it again as a vengeful master of the North Abyss. And he had amazing chemistry with his co star. I mean I couldnt find a flaw on his portrayal of the prince of merman kingdom, Chang Yi.

Dilraba is an actress with a non-conventional look. The first time i saw her in Eternal Love, I thought she was at least of mixed blood or even not chinese at all. So finding a child actor with a resemblance wouldve been hard. How can she grow into the adult her if she looks very chinese as a child, right? So i think The production scored jackpot when they hired Kristina the child actress. I first saw her in Legend of Anle, playing the child character for Dilraba too, she was perfect for the role! To see her again here in The Blue Whisper is a joy. It showed the production’s care for details.

I especially liked the Heavenly King too. I first saw him as Crown Prince in The Long Ballad, a character that is extremely irritating and overbearing. To see him carrying a total contrast of that character as a sensible and kind king in this show is amazing. His face expressions nailed every aspect of how a revered king should behave, despite being just a child.

One thing that i love about xianxia is that death usually isnt the end of the story. There would be second and third chances so there wasnt really room for tragic endings. Glad that this show doesnt massacre important characters and let them stay dead. It’s A different take on mortality and long lasting love, which made us feel good and happy.

I regret that I didnt watch this show sooner. I thought it would be boring. Glad it wasnt so.

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Every villain got what they deserved.

The show started off real fast paced (but slow burn towards the middle) as FL was carrying out an assassination on ML, Peng Cheng Wang (Prince of Peng City), the regent of the historical Liu Song Dynasty. The assassination turned out a disaster (of course, duh). She hid in an orphanage and was later found by Madam Shen who recognized the jade bracelet she was wearing, immediately identifies her as the Shen’s long lost daughter abducted as an infant during a battle in the north. The bracelet was actually given by her best friend (another assassin of course) with a promise to help find her birth parents, before the bff died as a distraction so FL could flee the botched assassination venue. FL grabs this chance and takes refuge in the Shen Mansion, a family of top general of the empire, as she plans for her next move to finish her failed assasination on ML and Minister of War Lu Yuan. It seemed like the team of assassins were driven by the belief planted by their master that Lu Yuan was a corrupt official and Peng Cheng Wang was an incompetent ruler who covers up for the corrupt officials in his court. They both needed to be killed because of their crimes to Liu Song Empire and its people.

Ironically, as she keeps on failing to kill Lu Yuan, she met a merchant who was also investigating Lu Yuan and this dude manages to convince her that killing won’t stop Lu Yuan’s corruption as another would just fill up his spot. The merchant, whom FL calls as Old Man (she was 18 and the dude was supposed to be 30+), convinced her to team up with him and topple Lu Yuan using rule of law. Things happened and they later developed feelings for each other. Then the decree came that the daughter of Shen family is bethrothed to Peng Cheng Wang as reward for their contribution in winning the war in the North, and FL decided to take this chance to kill ML on their wedding night. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan’s smuggling of weapons for private army was foiled, but the Shens were implicated as Lu Yuan slips out of their grasp with a mere slap on the hand by ML. This only angered FL even more and her hatred for ML grows. She got her biggest shock on the wedding night, as she only saw the face of the Peng Cheng Wang she hated to the core as she stabs her poisoned dagger into his belly, and he turned out to be the Old Man she fell in love with. She tried to kill herself after stabbing ML as to not implicate the Shens for her assassination crime, and because she regretted her actions, but ML instructed his personal bodyguard to take her away so the imperial guards wont catch her. Later things happened, plot after plot, surprise after surprise, villains after villains, misunderstandings and slanders came one after another, and they stick together through thick and thin.

I love the FL character, she’s one badass assassin who doesnt let injustice to happen. She thrives in jianghu, and is smart and witty enough to stand up against the palace harem bullying (yeah come on how can anyone bully an assassin, right?). And having an elder sister (the first wife) as back up does wonders to her too. She doesnt really need any saving, she can take care of herself although of course ML will need to be the saviour every now and then, even though he’s inferior to her in terms of fighting skills and brawn, so he depended on his power as regent and his scheming and manipulating skills. She is also very intelligent and isnt one of those characters who love to panic and jump to conclusions with baseless suspicions . I guess she learnt a lesson after being fooled by her master into wrongfully thinking that ML is a bad person when he was not.

One of the most pitiful but righteous characters must have been Princess Consort Xie, ML’s first wife. He had to marry her in accordance to the emperor’s decree, but never loved her. Never consummated the marriage and Empress Dowager had to make it a rule for him to have dinner at specific dates at the Princess Consort’s place or he wouldnt have even visited her at all. For someone who loved her husband in totality, her heart was so pure that she never envied the love FL gets from their shared husband when she entered the household as concubine. Instead she saw FL as a companion, BFF, whom she was willing to protect and support. I almost thought the Empress Dowager would be able to corrupt her mind against FL due to envy (like the plot of most drama), but it never happened. She stayed true to her character to the end.

Although I like this show, i find that the repetetive plot of getting poisoned, memory loss, faintings, fake deaths to be pretty annoying. I love the part where they dismantle the villains plans, but the journey to get there is quite annoying with things that I mention above. I find the scenes after ML got stabbed by FL was pretty dramatic and admirable, him braving his way through the pain for several days before succumbing to his injury and went into coma, as to cover up for his newly wedded wife’s actions.

Also I cannot wrap it around my head how come these assassins dont know how their target looks like? That is so messed up. The production couldve made the merchant’s disguise better and not reveal his face throughout their time together, maybe FL recognizing ML as the merchant on their wedding night using the tokens they exchanged if anything at all, but they didnt. It was quite early through the show that FL saw through his fake moustache and took it off (revealing his true face), I really thought she would identify him as Peng Cheng Wang but she didnt! So the whole team of badass assassins didnt even know how their target looks like before killing them?! These righteous assassins killing corrupt officials to keep them from ruining the prosperity of the nation didnt think that knowing how their target look like so they dont kill the wrong person was important. Really? 😑🙄 So messed up.

There were so maaaaaaany fillers and side love stories which I fast forward most of them, but I just need to give a special mention of FL’s handmaid XiaoXin as super duper annoying with her loud and unruly character. Looks much too exaggerated. So they wanted to make her that fun character who brights up people around her, it just went overboard. Characters like this would never survive in the palace as palace maid, she’d be dead by day 2! I was fascinated by ML’s personal bodyguard Xu Zhan too, he looked so feminine that when he wore full body armour and helmet during the North war, I didnt recognize him and thought he was a female character i hadnt noticed before! I also cannot wrap it around my head how they could let Zijin tag along to the north border for the war too. I could understand when FL wanted to go cuz she definitely has the qualities to fight a war, but Zijin? I almost thought she had hidden talent or skills to contribute, with those dramatic horse riding, serious look on her face and wearing full body armour including helmet, but when they were ambushed by the enemy, she became a burden to Shen Zhi (her love interest who is also FL’s eldest brother of the Shen family) as he needs to fight while holding her hand to protect her. What a disappointment. So they made her go to the north so ML, as regent and commander of the north army, could grant them a marriage 🙄 just for that. Bleerghh that is just too cheesy, man. Another annoying characters are Shen Leqing and Lu Wan. One a conniving scheming vengeful ungrateful person who didnt know when to stop, while another was super naiive and stupid who wasnt even sure of her bro’s crimes and yet think that he was wronged and decided to get revenge. Such easily-manipulated expendable pawns.

———-*SPOILER BELOW THIS LINE* ————

I *love* (-_-) how every good characters can get sliced and stabbed with swords, stuck with arrows and still can jump around the next day (or in an instant in FL’s case) as if nothing happened. With exception of Shen dad and elder brother, their deaths are pretty gruesome and tragic. But the rest of the characters are a-okay with all those injuries, so no worries!

The ending is one of those with question marks. At first I thought FL killed herself so Peng Cheng Wang would not be stuck between his love for her and the emperor’s decree of not sparing her as she was an assassin. It went pretty dramatic with ML’s joyfully running to meet with her only to see the place empty, dropping the decree he was holding. Then there were flashbacks of the FL drinking (poisoned?) wine and later looked dead, but the next thing they show was events three years later with ML doing great in court, and later went to the secret place FL brought him once upon a time, and there he dined with the joyous FL. So another fake death? Sheesh.

I thought they’d have kids by then though. I was a little disappointed that there was no 3yo dining with them at the end. Though I can say it’s a happy ending. At least to me. But because I am one of those who hates sad and open endings, I’m taking off 1 star due to this horrible Ep53. Wished they had ended the show at Ep 52.

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Too Many Plotholes to Handle

So FL is General Zhou Chu who just came back with her troops from the frontier bearing victory, and went to report to the king for commendation. Little did she know, her troops had been marked as collateral damage when the king decided to elevate her vice general as the crown prince. Turned out the Prince was sent in disguise in order to claim military merits, and upon his return, to prevent him from possessing too much military power as he was granted the crown prince title, the king had his troops eliminated. A few survived the massacre in the palace compound, one of them being FL who was picked up by their arch enemy from rival kingdom, Sheng Kaifeng. He used a secret technique to poison the FL and control her, making her his pawn by sending her back to her homeland to seek revenge against her vice general who is also her sworn brother in arms.

I’ve never seen a disgraced general who’s supposed to make a comeback for revenge be as reckless, weak and stupid as the FL on this show. After seeing strong FL who are also female generals leading troops in Fighting of Love, Princess Agent, Qingchuan’s Veil of Vengeance, and Legend of Shen Li, this Zhou Chu is a disgrace for that title. She acts like a naive foot soldier who couldnt see other than one step ahead of her. She incredibly lack calm and reservation, and she definitely falls behind so far out in terms of tactical manoeuvre. That ‘controlled by enemy due to poison’ trope is astronomically weak to justify how childish her actions are on this show because many happen while she is very much in control of her own body and mind. She also constantly needs consolation by ML, always needing rescueing by ML, and always needed to be restrained by ML cuz her childish act of trying to bulldoze her way through her revenge would definitely cost her life and others around her. Her trying to sound heroic just make me roll my eyes each time. And that bewildered look on her face when she shouldve stayed calm and composed when caught off guard by ML and Sheng truly make me look down on this character even more. The only scene I saw her look a teeny wee bit formidable was when she broke into Sheng Kaifeng’s camp to rescue her troops in the first 10 minutes of the first episode. Starting from there, her credibility as a general is thrown down the drain. The actress isnt all that good in romance and sad scenes too.

The ML, on the other hand, is pretty good. The emotions he tried to convey came through, although I cannot fathom at which point did he decide to fall in love with this pitiful general who he had always thought a man. The show being a miniseries with less than 20 min per episode may contribute to this cuz everything seemed rushed with considerable plotholes.

The music category came to be the saving grace for this show as it seem to get stuck in my head after a while, hence the medium range of the overall rating. And the performance of the actor who played ML and SML also saved the rating from getting a solid 4 or below.

Though i like the ML and SML, I just couldnt handle this whiny FL so i just had to drop it. Sorry not gonna waste any of my time over this anymore.

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True Masterpiece

Set three years after the chaos of Naksu the soul shifter’s rampage, Jang Uk had risen from the dead and became the strongest man in the realm at the highest level of Hwansu, all thanks to the ice stone that had settled in his body. Now working as soul shifter slayer for the palace, Jang Uk came across an imprisoned young lady in Jinyowon as he slain a soul shifter who had went into hiding in the compound, and after pleading by the lady, he abided in making steps for her to escape the prison. Little did he knew, they would later be embroiled in a much deeper relationship that he could ever imagined, that would eventually unlock their past, present and future fate.

Now I get why this series had been such a hype. It truly was a real masterpiece that combined romance, grief, action, revenge, friendship, comedy and drama into one perfect balance.

I dont know if the actor purposely got thinner to portray the grief-stricken Jang Uk, but i really thought he looked severely gaunt here, which matches his character as someone who is losing sleep due to the great burden he had to carry as the ice stone wielder, with a soul empty due to the loss of his beloved half. However, his martial moves got fiercer, bolder and deadlier thanks to the ice stone, and nobody in the realm ever dared to cross him. Although I hated how he treated Jin Buyeon in the beginning, I get why the writer had to make him as such.

I totally love Jin Buyeon here. heck I rarely like physically weak female character, but Jin Buyeon’s daring acts just couldnt make me dislike her. Her relentless escapes, her daring move to strike a deal with her future husband, her extremely bold decision to ask Jang Uk to marry her, her unwavering acts of trying to comfort Jang Uk when he constantly pushes her away is truly another level. I love it when she gets sulky with Jang Uk and Maidservant Kim would reprimand her beloved Young Master for making Jin Buyeon mad or cry. The screenwriter did a real good number with this character and the actress is phenomenal.

I actually liked the portrayal of Jang Uk-Jin Buyeon as a couple more than Jang Uk-Mudeok, although i must admit both actresses had an astronomical level of chemistry with the ML and i actually had a hard time deciding. Both were of equal beauty and talent, and I truly love both. But Season 2 set a whole different setting and phenomena, and since it ended with great satisfaction, I just had to give it a higher rating.

And lets not forget the ever so unforgettable Crown Prince Go Won. His character intrigued me in season 1, and he’s even more charming in season 2 despite his ever so changing flags. This grey character, that seemingly need to choose the dark path for political survival but at heart so badly wanted to tread in the light path for a better kingdom had not for his evil master Jin Mu constantly corrupting his heart, is truly hard to despise. Ever since season 1, i had failed to hate this character even when he was bullying Jang Uk. And when they started to politely banter with each other, they become one of the amusing scenes i always enjoy. One of the reasons I don’t really fancy kdramas is they like to yell and scream during arguments just to show superiority, so I kinda appreciate it when I come across a show that has amicable mature banter that doesnt involve banshee-like screaming and yelling.

Oh man I love love love the couple Park Jin-Kim Yeon. Such a cute middle age couple that could make hearts flutter. And dammit they just had to make me shed useless tears for their almost deaths. Grrrrrr. By the end of season 1, i kinda gotten the drift that whenever marriage is mentioned, there would be chaos to ensue next. 3 supposed marriages were mentioned throughout season 1 and 2,, and yep, 3 chaos had occured that stopped the marriages from happening.

Basically there wasnt any that I could really complain with this show. Just watch it!

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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.

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A Cornered Wolf Fights for Survival

19yo Fan Changyu had just lost both her parents last month, and now she was left to care for her sickly younger sister Fan Changning by taking up her father’s job - pig butcher. She is known throughout the Xigu Street where she lived as the girl with extraordinary strength, having to knock out a full grown pig with one slap. On her way back from work, she stumbled upon Yan Zheng in the snow. Seeing him unconscious and heavily injured, Fan Changyu was unable to turn her back and went to carry him home, despite knowing she had no means to support another mouth to feed. In the same courtyard as the Fan humble house there is another house of the Zhou couple, almost like an adoptive parents to Fan sisters. As Yan Zheng was recuperating, numerous incidents occured that led to Fan Changyu proposing to Yan Zheng to be her married-in husband. Seeing this as an opportunity to lay low and further investigate the Jizhou massacre 17years prior that involved the death of the crown prince and his father, Yan Zheng readily agreed. Little that he knew, his fate and Fan Changyu’s ran deeper than even the murky waters of revenge he was in.

I am happy to say that this is definitely a great adaptation work, not surprising that the production team include the people from Blossom team that managed to turn a crappy novel into a masterpiece adaptation. Although Zhu Yu novel wasnt as bad as Blossom, the character for ML is particularly horrendous in the last quarter of the story, much like the grapist Wei Shao from Prisoner of Beauty novel (not the adaptation of course). It’s one of the turnoff when i finished reading the novel last year, and hoped so badly that the production wouldnt follow the crappy ML characterization by the original author. I had my wish come true and beaming with joy all throughout the show!

Zhang Linghe as Xie Jiuheng/Yanzheng was perfect! I’ve always rooted for him after watching his fine work in My Journey to You, he even double triple his performance level since then! Hurrah! I am more than satisfied! I feel so happy that the production purified this character compared to the novel, which left me thoroughly resenting the ML by the last chapter.

And Tian Xiwei as Fan Changyu is picture perfect! Breathtakingly beautiful but fighteningly strong in physique and character, Tian Xiwei nailed it to the core! I first saw her in Guardians of Dafeng and boy i hated her character to the bones, but when i saw her in the trailer last year, i somehow feel she would do a good job. She just had that Changyu aura. And she did!! Although she is small and slim, her depiction of physically strong woman is very much convincing, and her fight choreographs look extremely believable and amazing. I could tell she worked really hard in this part just by her performance on screen. And to see BTS clips where she literally carried Zhang Linghe on her back multiple times, ON HER OWN, without any wires to help with the weight really blew my mind. This girl truly has mystery powerpacks in that small and slim body!

The rest of the cast was amazing in performance hence why i rated 10/10. Deng Kai as Sui Yuanhuai was phenomenal and he depicted the wretched character of the novel really well.

And I couldnt help feeling sorry for the main mastermind in court Wei Yan, the person who orchestrated a grand ploy 17years ago that shaped a different courtscene as seen today on the show. As he is this cornered Wolf that was forced to fight fiercely for its survival. What the adaptation didnt include that the novel had written was the reason why Wei Yan had been very harsh towards Xie Jiuheng’s upbringing, which is to forge the sharpest blade for the kingdom. Wei Yan practically threw away his life, future and reputation as a statestman so he could raise a warrior that would protect the people. He had to be the villain so he could produce a hero. I feel so bad for this guy at the end of the novel, really. Hated him for so many chapters just to feel horribly sorry for him at the end. In this part, which is creating a great plot and storyline, i must say the original author had been remarkably brilliant. I just question the author’s moral compass due to how the ML character is molded towards the end of the story.

Fight choreograph is superbly done, fierce and strong aura filling up the screen in every battle, i cannot criticize anything at all. And the funny parts in the show worked put very well and are not cringy at all. And the songs are so nice!!! They stuck in my head for quite a while. Dangit i love them!

However, there’s actually one small thing that is bothering me, one that is prevalent not just with this drama but also most of other idol dramas with military general characters. I just wish they would do a more messy makeup for these characters to make it more believable. Something like the ML on The Rebel Princess. Now that is a pure ancient military general look closest to reality. That messy, harsh, brute look. Not the clean and slick, flawless porcelein-looking skin after battles with minor red scratches across the cheek. I get that idol dramas do tend to feminize ML characters, but coming from a wuxia freak i find this extremely cringy and ridiculous. Yan Zheng was also too flawless-looking when living in Changyu’s humble household. I was expecting something like Jang Siyul’s look from The Murky Stream, after all he wasnt supposed to bathe regularly since he’s injured and hot water is not readily available for poor household like Changyu’s. I am totally NOT against beautiful men, I love looking at them of course, but at least make them look that part when they just got out of (or still in) a hellhole. Nobody looks fine and flawless after battles, the words ‘battles’ and ‘looking flawless’ just dont go in line. Would it really hurt the rating if they look messy at certain parts of the story? I honestly doubt it. Fans would still swoon and non fans wouldnt have a thing to criticize.

I also dont get why people fall head over heels after unrealistic-looking characters and then get mad when their idols dont have as much screentime as they anticipated. It’s funny because the novel itself is a female centric piece which focusses more on the FL than ML. What’s even funnier is that many are complaining on iQiyi’s ep 38 of the lack of bed scene of the main couple. Gosh go watch some porn if you guys needed the action so badly, why demand to see it on screen of legitimate platforms? What a weird fetish. Get a life, folks.

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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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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.

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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.

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Fun enough to keep me watching

The plot is very light and comedic, mainly revolves around the building of relationship between the Crown Prince and Hua Liuli, amidst the lingering espionage from neighbouring warring country. Hua Liuli is a daughter of prominent general of the nation and had been crowned as princess for her parents’ military contributions, and invited to live in the capital, where in reality she was actually held as political hostage because the emperor was wary of how big an influence both her parents wield as mighty generals and worry that they might steal the throne with their huge army. Upon her arrival at the capital, she acted like a weak, sickly maiden to avoid people (especially the emperor) from getting wary of her, where in reality she was quick witted and very good in martial art.

The palace drama in the harem and the political conspiracy is minimal with ridiculously comedic kind of vibe so they tend to look stupid.

I didnt like how the ML (crown prince) look. He looked like a gaunt porcelain statue whose face been dabbed with too much fair coloured foundations and he had very weird face expressions. He tried too hard to look like a calculative, evil, indifferent crown prince. I think FL did okay although the part she acted as a sickly maiden is rather exaggerated (not sure if they intend to do it this way as it is a comedy). The acting is mediocre and they include so many awkward moments of proximity between the ML and FL which I failed to find the spark. I find them pretty lame.

The costume is sooooo over the top with ridiculous-looking dangling hair accessories and ugly flowy dress. Colour combination of the female dresses are botched too. The female’s makeup looks weird too as they put the blusher around the eyes instead of cheeks, and they drew the eyebrow wayyy across the temple.

I just realized everytime they want to portray a character of being sick, it’s always with the slight fake coughing. It’s like even when the character says,”i have a headache/stomach ache,” they would always cough. It’s so annoying.

The first kiss being on the forehead is pretty sweet though. I’m getting sick of lip-kissing between two yet-to-profess-their-love persons. It’s unrealistic in the ancient society that doesn’t even let females and males to mingle freely.

Towards the end the FL became rather stupid though, the plot also became rather ridiculous. So there’s a revolt going to happen and they know when the rebels will take action, one wouldve thought they had prepared backup properly. But nooooo, they had to make it dramatic by going about on how Liuli was going to mobilize the whole Hua army from outside the capital to storm into the palace as backup. Even funnier thing is that the emperor also knows about the plot and feigned sickness, and only came out when the mastermind revealed herself. Interestingly, the emperor conveniently forgets that a band of murderous assassins are pursuing his Crown Prince outside the palace while he was having a chat with the mastermind. I wouldve thought it’d be a brilliant plan by the scheming Crown Prince or even the quickwitted Liuli. It was big disappointment instead.

The show ended with a wedding of course.

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A Small Fry Trying to Take Down the Giant

Southern Knight, 4th rank imperial guard Zhan Zhao is caught in a kidnapping case as he is making his way to the capital to deliver an important secret letter to the emperor, with both court officials and jianghu warriors hot on his pursuit. While suffering from substantial injuries, he joins hands with Huo Xiaodi, young mistress of Linglong Sect who is on the run from her marriage, on this detour to rescue a medicine boy albeit failed to do so. Due to his injuries and to ensure that letter arrives to the capital, Zhan Zhao decides to join hands with Huo Xiaodi/Huo Linglong and Bai Yutang. Their adventures do not stop at the capital, as the emperor commands Zhan Zhao to further investigate the case on the letter that had also branded him and his friend who lost his life for that letter as traitors.

I totally love the pacing of the plot, which is FAST! I cant seem to put down the phone and keep wanting to proceed to the next episode. I like how they connect all the seemingly unconnected cases that they found along their investigation that always lead to the Royal Uncle, Prince of Xiangyang. There is hardly any plothole that I could dig into despite the plot being rather intricate with intertwining mysteries and cold cases that they uncover - Huo Linglong with her engagement that seem to involve the possession of an ultimate weapon of the Linglong Manor, Bai Yutang with his late brother’s murder case that he was convinced a set up, and Zhan Zhao with his dark past of 10years ago that was related to his loyal boyservant Ming Zhuer.

I also love the friendship and affection the group had for each other, something that started as accidental encounter had forged a solid relationship between them. And i especially love the lack of romance here which proves that ML and FL can be friends without romance to dramatize the plot. Despite the absence of romance, Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang and Huo Linglong had extraordinary chemistry with each other. Who says you need romance or love triangles to spice things up? Totally hate that kind of trope so i am glad they didnt go for that angle. What they had is purely great friendship that nobody could shatter.

I must say Yang Yang’s fight sequences, especially his swordfights, are some of the best I’ve seen on cdrama so far. Theyre fiercely brute and elaborate, and it is hard to see much flaw. He’s good at doing these action scenes, I can tell that he worked real hard on them. In fact all the fights on this show is very good and manage to keep me on the edge of my seat , especially when Zhan Zhao had never got better from his severe injury throughout the show. I like how forceful each strike is and the movement of each fighter is flawlessly breathtaking. Although, I had to comment that the body double/stuntman for the FL is rather badly chosen and actions horribly done. His size is obviously much bigger than FL, also much thicker, hence every step he made only looked too obvious. The horrible wig he had on him only made it worse. I felt like i was watching the 90’s HK kungfu drama where you can spot which part did the stuntman take over cuz they stood out like a sore thumb 🤣

This is definitely another notable work of Alan Fang, I had my eyes on him ever since A Journey to Love and none of his works disappoint, even when he took up the villain mantle in Whispers of Fate. Alan Fang is a true underdog that excel at being the SML.

I am not sure why the rating is so low for a great show like this. Dont fall for it. If youre an action lover, this show will literally make you drool.

It is rare to see a group of close-knit friends staying alive at the end of cdrama nowadays. They had to make season 2, right?

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Great Recap of the 3L3W10MPB

The story takes off after the mortal version of Bai Qian, Su Su, jumps from the Zhuxian Terrace that ended her mortal tribulation, though the scar of the experience plagued her so much that she asked for the memory to be erased. 300 years after that event, Bai Qian came across her then husband Ye Hua again, but this time as the fiance of Empress od Qingqiu, the crown prince that she definitely failed to recognize due to the memory wipeout. It was A Li who first recognized her as his mother in the painting, and convinced that she was Su Su, Ye Hua is adamant to try every means necessary to win her back even if it means using their own son for it. And all this while, Bai Qian keeps running away from this weird stalker she encountered at the Eastern Sea Lord’s son birthday banquet.

As an avid fan of Eternal Love drama, this movie really serves the purpose of a rewatch. I’ve always felt the first half of the drama a bit draggy, so I am elated to find this movie where I can finish the best parts of the show in less than 2 hours.

At first I was not convinced to see the cast, I’ve always felt Liu Yifei to have the acting talent of a piece of wood, and well Yang Yang, his face looked too modern for an ancient setting. But I am glad they proved me wrong with their outstanding performance and amazing chemistry. LYF definitely improved tremendously since I last saw her as Xiao Longnu in Condor Heroes series, and Yang Yang’s face kinda grows into me. At least he’s much nicer to look at than the I-dont-remember-his-name actor for Eternal Love drama’s Ye Hua.

And the fights in the movie are much more interesting and fun to watch than the drama, LYF’s Bai Qian actually had real physical fighting scenes that doesnt just show her waving her arms around fighting off enemies with her immortal powers like in the drama.

I thought drama’s Zhe Yan was lovable enough, it turned out the movie’s Zhe Yan is even more handsome and peculiar, with his demeanour much more interesting than in the series, so much that I immediately took a liking at first sight. I love his peacocky phoenix costume very much, because it matches the colourful environment they had in Qingqiu, a total contrast from the series’ all white Zhe Yan. While some people might find the colourful setting of Qingqiu to be comical, I find it beautiful and ethereal instead, and I liked the movie’s depiction of Qingqiu more than series’.

I am not sure if this movie would come out bad for someone who’s never watched the original drama or novel, but for me as both drama viewer and novel reader, and most definitely a fan, all those plotholes magically filled themselves as I watch so I didnt notice them until i read some of them in other reviews.

Basically i loved this movie cuz allows me to powerbinge the whole series in mere hours. In fact I’ve already watched this movie thrice! I totally ship Bai Qian-Ye Hua no matter who the actors are. However I gotta admit, the fact that i don’t really like Yang Mi (the drama’s Bai Qian) as an actress might play a role, so when Liu Yifei came into the picture as another actress that I used to dislike but yet managed to grab my attention as I felt she portrayed a better Bai Qian than the drama version, it kinda affected how I saw this movie as a whole. So somehow I am more content with the movie’s Bai Qian- Ye Hua than the series.

The only blunder that the movie made was the ending, but since I knew the ending in the novel I kinda strike off the movie’s weird ending instead. So yeah I cheated but I’ve rewatched this movie three times so I guess I do like it regardless what kind of ending it has.

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