This review may contain spoilers
Justice is served
When you play a game of cards, the outcome is never 100% guaranteed. It can be predicted based on the players moves but it is never really absolute. It can change in the blink of an eye. One is expecting something and at the very last minute, the perceived unexpected happens. Why? To show that a person’s life path can be challenging and though? What is the point of climbing a mountain, through treacherous terrain, temperamental weather and conquering altitude sickness in hopes of enjoying a spectacular view at the top only to discover a cemetery instead?
It's almost as if drama production teams were compelled to discreetly push and motivate the audience to continue watching the drama, building up hopes that it would be worthwhile and that fans would enjoy it, just to deliver them tombstones.
Blossom's production team, thankfully, delivered their implicit promise that the view from the top of the mountain would be incredible. In fact, the view was breathtakingly flawless, with the ending seemingly crafted in the stars. After going through the pits of hell with and for one another, Song Mo and Dou Zhao would finally be able to live happily together.
The deliverance of their wedding fairly early in the drama has allowed viewers to experience their marriage life for a significant number of episodes, which the majority of dramas tend to overlook in favour of unnecessary fill-ups that devalue the quality of the visual storyline and irritate viewers. Story quality over number of episodes worked extremely well as the 34 episodes perhaps minus one or two that could be condensed in the later stages of the drama were just right to tell a good story from beginning to end without dragging it out to 40 episodes with boring material that added nothing to the plot.
The story’s introduction was an epic masterpiece with Song Mo in a lengthy white/greyish hair, saving Dou Zhou and an orphan child from harm. His softness, tenderness, sensitivity, empathy and kindness were as riveting as the fated arrow that later pierced through them, binding their life stories together. It was so unexpected and mind-blowing that made the audience thirsty for more and did not let it down throughout. As they are pierced by the arrow, they fall through a large mirror, and travel back in time, waking up as children to begin their lives again.
Song Mo is a strong man, a powerfully humble, righteous male lead with an unquestionable sense of justice and loyalty who has been betrayed by a number of people, most notably his father, a duke who despised him in favour of his younger brother, an illegitimate love child whom he desired to be his legal heir. To accomplish this, he had no qualms in hurting Song Mo as much as he could, displaying his public contempt for the son who took a beating for him in front of soldiers. However, the father no matter how wicked and terrible he was, was a known enemy. Song Han, the seemingly soft studious brother, however, plotted Song Mo’s demise without publicly opposing him. The worse kind of opponent is the one that hides in the shadows and the most dangerous one is usually a family member. Betrayal after all never comes from an enemy. The most intriguing aspect of Song Mo is that, despite everything he has endured from his father and paternal relatives, his heart has remained pure and his honour has remained intact, as evidenced by his commitment and dedication to justice and determination to find the mastermind behind his maternal uncle’s demise.
Dou Zhao is a phenomenal strategist who, unlike Song Mo remembers everything about her previous life, and works tirelessly to remedy the mistakes that have led to their demise. In the present, with the red line of fate intertwined with Song Mo’s, they embark on a journey of mutual assistance, support, trust and love that transforms them into allies and converts them into a loving husband and wife, united against the world, literally transcending both time and space. Through her decisive actions Dou Zhao is able to achieve her goals and avoid repeating her past life mistakes, thanks to her strategic, decisive measures. Despite being unable to prevent her mother’s death or her best friend from becoming her stepmother, Dou Zhao is able to move in with her grandmother, grow up in peace, and build prosperous business ventures that provided her with financial freedom. She was also able to choose who she married, accepting Song Mo marriage proposal and becoming his wife, rather than marrying Wei Ting Yu as she had in her previous life and getting poisoned by him and her sister due to their simplistic idyllic love for one another.
Blossom is full of twists and turns with various demises as the story progresses including Dou Zhao’s sister Dou Ming and Wei Ting Yu who not also marry in the present but also die tragically, and her stepmother, who ends up living the rest of her life paying for her sins, among other characters like Song Mo’s father, to mention a few.
It almost seems like after a supporting character’s arch has served its purpose in the story, the character dies. Thus, death serves both as a karmic, tragic ending and a beginning to another uncovered plot, which continues until the very end with existing personas i.e. Ansu, Dou Zhou’s childhood friend who is granted the title of princess by the emperor and marries Song Han. She debuts early in the story, then goes about her life for a number of episodes before taking centre stage as Dou Zhou’s high-ranked sister-in-law, second only to the male leads, to propel the storyline forward. She stands by Song Mo, because she loves him, ignoring his distorted mind and sordid inner nature. A man who was willing to hurt another person in order to prove his physical superiority had a black heart and a corrupted spirit, as a result of his inferiority complex with Song Mo. In the end, Ansu serves justice by taking her husband’s life, showing that there is love and hate on opposite ends of the spectrum and their combination is fire and ice.
Yuan Tong / Ji Yong was an interesting character. In the first life, he was a monk, in the second, a game-changer strategic healer mastermind who strived for power to implement the changes in the empire that he saw as necessary, and aimed for Song Mo’s death to be with Dou Zhao, whom he admired and loved to the ends of the earth, whom he saw as an equal, and the ideal match for him. Yuan Tong was kind and light-hearted. Ji Yong on the other hand, was kind, deceitful and grey, a magician of fates, using people as pawns in his chess match to gain authority. The first wanted peace, and strived for good; the second wanted peace and aimed for war, believing that revolution was necessary and could only be achieved via force. He eventually achieved his professional goal of becoming the new dynasty’s chief grand secretary but loveless. Love, however had never been his main priority anyway.
Even though he was mentally in love with Dou Zhao, Ji Yong was more focused on his career than actively chasing her, unlike many second male leads. However, the character could not really be regarded as a second male lead in the first place. He was a dynasty manipulator who used Prince Qing and Song Han like his disposable pawns, who ultimately paid the price for their wrongdoings, demonstrating that even though they had the means to accomplish their goals, those things mean nothing in a conflict between evil and right, darkness and light, war and peace, hate and love. Karma should be fulfilled and love should ultimately triumph. That's what took place here. Justice was served, love prevailed and karma was served without the possibility of redemption but then love and redemption is another story.
All things considered, Blossom was refreshing sans the cliched storylines. As per usual troupe, the leads did not meet, fall in love, break up, and then reunite at the very end. They met, became allies, friends, fell in love, married, endured hell together, remained devoted to one another, and had a daughter they watched grow up. Since Song Mo and Dou Zhao only had eyes for one another and did not want to be with anyone else or put up with any interference in their relationship, there was absolutely no love triangle. Kudos to them for sticking together through everything life threw at them, for helping and caring for one other, for demonstrating what a healthy, stable, and loving relationship should look like, and for the happy ending.
It's almost as if drama production teams were compelled to discreetly push and motivate the audience to continue watching the drama, building up hopes that it would be worthwhile and that fans would enjoy it, just to deliver them tombstones.
Blossom's production team, thankfully, delivered their implicit promise that the view from the top of the mountain would be incredible. In fact, the view was breathtakingly flawless, with the ending seemingly crafted in the stars. After going through the pits of hell with and for one another, Song Mo and Dou Zhao would finally be able to live happily together.
The deliverance of their wedding fairly early in the drama has allowed viewers to experience their marriage life for a significant number of episodes, which the majority of dramas tend to overlook in favour of unnecessary fill-ups that devalue the quality of the visual storyline and irritate viewers. Story quality over number of episodes worked extremely well as the 34 episodes perhaps minus one or two that could be condensed in the later stages of the drama were just right to tell a good story from beginning to end without dragging it out to 40 episodes with boring material that added nothing to the plot.
The story’s introduction was an epic masterpiece with Song Mo in a lengthy white/greyish hair, saving Dou Zhou and an orphan child from harm. His softness, tenderness, sensitivity, empathy and kindness were as riveting as the fated arrow that later pierced through them, binding their life stories together. It was so unexpected and mind-blowing that made the audience thirsty for more and did not let it down throughout. As they are pierced by the arrow, they fall through a large mirror, and travel back in time, waking up as children to begin their lives again.
Song Mo is a strong man, a powerfully humble, righteous male lead with an unquestionable sense of justice and loyalty who has been betrayed by a number of people, most notably his father, a duke who despised him in favour of his younger brother, an illegitimate love child whom he desired to be his legal heir. To accomplish this, he had no qualms in hurting Song Mo as much as he could, displaying his public contempt for the son who took a beating for him in front of soldiers. However, the father no matter how wicked and terrible he was, was a known enemy. Song Han, the seemingly soft studious brother, however, plotted Song Mo’s demise without publicly opposing him. The worse kind of opponent is the one that hides in the shadows and the most dangerous one is usually a family member. Betrayal after all never comes from an enemy. The most intriguing aspect of Song Mo is that, despite everything he has endured from his father and paternal relatives, his heart has remained pure and his honour has remained intact, as evidenced by his commitment and dedication to justice and determination to find the mastermind behind his maternal uncle’s demise.
Dou Zhao is a phenomenal strategist who, unlike Song Mo remembers everything about her previous life, and works tirelessly to remedy the mistakes that have led to their demise. In the present, with the red line of fate intertwined with Song Mo’s, they embark on a journey of mutual assistance, support, trust and love that transforms them into allies and converts them into a loving husband and wife, united against the world, literally transcending both time and space. Through her decisive actions Dou Zhao is able to achieve her goals and avoid repeating her past life mistakes, thanks to her strategic, decisive measures. Despite being unable to prevent her mother’s death or her best friend from becoming her stepmother, Dou Zhao is able to move in with her grandmother, grow up in peace, and build prosperous business ventures that provided her with financial freedom. She was also able to choose who she married, accepting Song Mo marriage proposal and becoming his wife, rather than marrying Wei Ting Yu as she had in her previous life and getting poisoned by him and her sister due to their simplistic idyllic love for one another.
Blossom is full of twists and turns with various demises as the story progresses including Dou Zhao’s sister Dou Ming and Wei Ting Yu who not also marry in the present but also die tragically, and her stepmother, who ends up living the rest of her life paying for her sins, among other characters like Song Mo’s father, to mention a few.
It almost seems like after a supporting character’s arch has served its purpose in the story, the character dies. Thus, death serves both as a karmic, tragic ending and a beginning to another uncovered plot, which continues until the very end with existing personas i.e. Ansu, Dou Zhou’s childhood friend who is granted the title of princess by the emperor and marries Song Han. She debuts early in the story, then goes about her life for a number of episodes before taking centre stage as Dou Zhou’s high-ranked sister-in-law, second only to the male leads, to propel the storyline forward. She stands by Song Mo, because she loves him, ignoring his distorted mind and sordid inner nature. A man who was willing to hurt another person in order to prove his physical superiority had a black heart and a corrupted spirit, as a result of his inferiority complex with Song Mo. In the end, Ansu serves justice by taking her husband’s life, showing that there is love and hate on opposite ends of the spectrum and their combination is fire and ice.
Yuan Tong / Ji Yong was an interesting character. In the first life, he was a monk, in the second, a game-changer strategic healer mastermind who strived for power to implement the changes in the empire that he saw as necessary, and aimed for Song Mo’s death to be with Dou Zhao, whom he admired and loved to the ends of the earth, whom he saw as an equal, and the ideal match for him. Yuan Tong was kind and light-hearted. Ji Yong on the other hand, was kind, deceitful and grey, a magician of fates, using people as pawns in his chess match to gain authority. The first wanted peace, and strived for good; the second wanted peace and aimed for war, believing that revolution was necessary and could only be achieved via force. He eventually achieved his professional goal of becoming the new dynasty’s chief grand secretary but loveless. Love, however had never been his main priority anyway.
Even though he was mentally in love with Dou Zhao, Ji Yong was more focused on his career than actively chasing her, unlike many second male leads. However, the character could not really be regarded as a second male lead in the first place. He was a dynasty manipulator who used Prince Qing and Song Han like his disposable pawns, who ultimately paid the price for their wrongdoings, demonstrating that even though they had the means to accomplish their goals, those things mean nothing in a conflict between evil and right, darkness and light, war and peace, hate and love. Karma should be fulfilled and love should ultimately triumph. That's what took place here. Justice was served, love prevailed and karma was served without the possibility of redemption but then love and redemption is another story.
All things considered, Blossom was refreshing sans the cliched storylines. As per usual troupe, the leads did not meet, fall in love, break up, and then reunite at the very end. They met, became allies, friends, fell in love, married, endured hell together, remained devoted to one another, and had a daughter they watched grow up. Since Song Mo and Dou Zhao only had eyes for one another and did not want to be with anyone else or put up with any interference in their relationship, there was absolutely no love triangle. Kudos to them for sticking together through everything life threw at them, for helping and caring for one other, for demonstrating what a healthy, stable, and loving relationship should look like, and for the happy ending.
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