Hime

Yeah, I noticed it too. Sa Ding Ding sings a lot of c-drama osts, mostly xianxia but also other historical c-dramas. I will edit this comment if I figure out which song and drama it is that we are both reminded of.

You forgot to add bad cgi. What was that scene of them in the car right at the beginning of the 1st episode? That alone was enough for me to give up on this one.

This is entertaining with some good episodes and some boring ones.

My biggest issue is that the characters' backstory and plot development felt very superficial. I feel like they could have fleshed it out a bit more.

The ending was also kind of disappointing, unless they actually release a second season soon.

I started feeling something off early on. I liked the first few episodes but then found myself bored while watching some of the second plots. I wish they added more fight scenes showing the main leads working together and the FL being badass rather than wasting so much time on dumb palace politics and what is going on (not much) in the other kingdom.

I feel like this had so much potential but somehow it fell flat. I honestly just put it on hold. Want to wait for the last 10 episodes to push through it because I can tell I will be either annoyed or bored most of the time. T T

I think the writer has a grudge against the whole Feng family, mother, father and children. ^^'

I think it is a problem with the writing. I wanted to love this drama but I keep being thrown off by some of the things they add to the plot and some characters actions. I´m sure with better writing we would be feeling more chemistry between them.

In theory this drama shoud be my cup of tea. The way it starts, a general female lead that is both smart and strong, a good amount of romance...BUT I found myself skipping A LOT of scenes.

The main issue I had with it after watching about 10 episodes or so was how they were basically splitting screentime between the main couple and the prince and sister + the other side plots. I honestly have never cared much for those 2, mostly his sister. For me her character does nothing for the plot, she is just an annoying, selfish, dumb brat that is there to make other people's lives more difficult. I just skipped most of their scenes and scenes in the other kingdom, cause I could not care less.

Having watched the latest episode, ep 28, I now have more things to add to the list of things that bother me about this drama.

Some scenes are made to be too dramatic with the lighting, music and camera angle, mostly the kisses and such, it just feels a bit too much. I love romance but there is no need to be so extra about it. ^^'

And what is wrong with everyone? So many characters acting out of character and going against their own principles and people dying left and right. It almost feels like we are near the end of the drama, except there are still 10 episodes left. The writing for this drama feels a bit off. Like it could have been a great drama but it somehow feels good or average depending on the episode.

I know this is an unpopular opinion but I just felt like ranting a little while I wait for the last 10 episodes to push through them and finally reach the end of this. It has been a while since I last had a love-hate relationship with a drama.

Now that you mentioned it, no wonder I felt like I had seen him before but could not remember in which drama. It was not exactly him, his face just felt familiar. ^^'

I did not think of a specific drama when I made the comparison. The cgi here just reminded me of some of the older Chinese fantasy dramas, some I had to drop because of how bad the cgi was.

I have watched them so long ago and my list is huge but I remember how bad the cgi was back then and this movie unfortunately reminded me of that.

There are still some pretty recent productions out there with bad cgi but it got much better.

If you are a fantasy fan I recommend using the advanced search. You can select the fantasy tag and any other tags you like and then filter by things like country, movie vs drama, release date, rating, and so on. I have used it in the past when I had nothing new to watch and it was pretty useful.

I am not sure the comedy part will be my cup of tea, but this seems like the perfect drama to watch during my lunch break.

Ok, so, I never read the novel and with such a great cast I had to give it a try BUT the CGI really is bad, worse than what I would see from some fantasy Cdramas from 15 years ago.

A good cast is not going to carry a movie when you neither please the fans of the original work by properly adapting the story nor bother to invest in making good CGI. This was an embarrasing attempt at doing whatever they were trying to do. Such a great cast and this was the final result? ^^'

Yeah, I started with Kdramas but in recent years I have been mostly watching Chinese dramas. Not many great Kdramas in recent years. I mostly watch historical dramas but some modern day Chinese dramas I also find interesting, like this one. I am also a huge Zhao Lu Si fan so I will watch pretty much anything she is in.

I actually thought this was going to be more depressing and dramatic but it seems the main leads are slowly starting to understand each other. So yeah, not as makjang as I thought it would be. So far I am really enjoying this one.

Yeah, I understand. It also bothers me when I see it happen to a drama I really like.

Usually I´m fair with my ratings and try to watch until the end even if I am not enjoying it as much so I can judge the drama in its entirety. I only leave reviews for dramas that I really loved or if I find a drama to be so bad that I have to go on a rant. This one did not fit in either group so I just left a comment with my overall opinion and gave it a decent rating.

P.S. - People who give ratings of 1 because it was not what they expected or do not like an actor/actress and on the other side people who give 10 to an average drama because it has their favorite actor/actress really bothers me. It makes it hard to trust MDL ratings. I have watched great dramas that did not have hight ratings and have started dramas that I had to drop that had super high ratings just because the cast was full of idols.

I have seen it quite often in regular length dramas but it usually happens more in soap opera style dramas, like Korean makjang or lakorns (Thai dramas).

I do not watch vertical dramas because I like watching dramas on my pc or tv but I watch short dramas and they are pretty similar, just not filmed vertically, so I know what you mean, they are pretty over the top. XD

You do not have to be a vertical drama watcher. If you have watched dramas long enough, 15 years for me, you would also be extremely suspicious of that DNA test.

I do not trust anything that involves Fang Lei. I would not even put behind me the possibility that she has something to do with her sister´s death. The kid is an excuse for her to stick around Haoming. In her mind she probably thinks she can be upgraded from aunt to mom in the future. She is delusional.

I was not spoiled, until I read your comment, but I got that exact same feeling.

I already found it weird that she found out she was pregnant 2 months after they broke up. Usually after about a month and a half you already have the first symptoms, plus it would mean that she would have gotten pregnant right before the breakup which does not seem likely because the relationship was probably already strained for a while before they finally decided to break up and I doubt they were sleeping together right up until the moment they broke up.

Another thing I found suspicious was Fang Lei being the one to give him the DNA test result. I have to suspect the veracity of any document that she touches. My guess is she thought in her disturbed mind that she could tie him down with the kid. Her being the aunt would create an unbreakable connection between the 3 of them, giving her an excuse to stick around and eventually go from aunt to mother, or so she wished.

I'm glad you enjoyed everything. I can tell a lot of effort was put into making this drama and I was interested in the plot for the first half or so, then it became mostly a cooking competition. I kept watching for the cooking but lost interest in the plot.

I have been watching dramas for 15 years now so it is not easy for a drama to keep me invested right until the last episode. Only a few dramas a year are able to really grab my attention. ^^'

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I found the first half or so interesting but then lost a bit of interest in the plot. Kept watching because of the cooking and to find out how it would end.