ibisfeather

Somebody said below that this cdrama is giving them kdrama vibes. I think I can feel that too and have been on the lookout for why.

Here's one reason..
The second couple and their tropey funny match has exactly the relationship to the OTP as in the best kdramas -- it is funny and underlines what the main couple has by both reflection and contrast at the same time.
It is like an exercise in EQ for the idle mind of the viewer..

Think of it not as a personality characteristic but as training to be Empress. Everyone around her probably interprets it that way too. She has to prove she is up to the job. The sort of control and discipline needed to run the palace hordes is practically military.

He doesnt stalk her really. They really are a couple, he isnt imagining it. He has got her already. But she doesnt want to go beyond a certain very palacey distance/arranged marriage, and he does. So he keeps flirting when they are alone. And he has no shame about it and honestly she doest seem to mind. You should watch. It ought to make you laugh when he bats his eyelashes and says he is too weak to feed himself.
She always has the space to say no and frequently does.

It is true. The director of POJ practically created a whole new side to ZLH. This is not that role. But the acting quality is consistently decent across all the main characters here, so it is the roles ..melodrama.
I am starting to agree about the 8/10. Sort of.

I keep coming back for a little bit more every few days. The acting and storyline arent bad, really! I do sort of like Republican verticals anyway.

At least there is no misunderstanding. The ML fell in love and strategizes to make her fall in love with thm. Tenaciously and shamelessly he keeps telling the woman he loves how wonderful she is and how much he loves her. So its not the same trope as the cold FL.

He slowly and imperceptibly changes their physical space. His beloved has two souls, one who is utterly cold, very filiak and upstanding, likes wielding power, and is very calculating. She inhabits the body of a warm happy soul whom the ML is betting will give him her heart eventually.

Prince Xin, on the other hand was a little masochistic; he adored the Gu girl in her original life-span; loved her ruthless cruelty. And that is not coming back. The only redo in this life is for sure that the Gu girl will become identical to the happy Shen Xi He.

It is as if a year ago every production company said oh cold FLs are in, lets make that sort of show. It is annoying but not the fault of writers or directors, who need to work no matter what and often have several projects going at once in various stages.

But some are better than other in the crowd (like this one!)

For me from episode 1 up through 20, the slow evolution of SXH's character is really interesting, and likewise the way Prince HuaYong changes his perspectives because he has fallen in love.

Simplest thing to say is what this is not.
NOT a revenge fantasy.
NOT a relationship redo fantasy.
She is not reborn before her suicide or before she married Prince Xin.
She (the Gu girl) is done with that life.
She is 'reborn' into another girl's life (the Shen girl), body and memories.

His dead wife's soul (that of Gu Qing Zhi) appears to have been standing on a bridge in the underworld at that stargate moment when Shen Xi He was hurled to her death in the water halfway between the Northwest and the capital, on her way to be married off.

The two souls, ala Alchemy of Souls, live together, with the Gu girl's consciousness dominant but the memories of the Shen girl fully available.

We see how those Shen memories slowly humanize the Gu girl's perspectives, until we see not two souls but one multifarious one.

There is nothing to be done for the Gu clan because they are all completely dead. They and the Fans were age-old enemies, so no win no foul. The Gu girl was happy and satisfied to have brought down the Fans via her suicide and she didnt care a bit for her husband, Prince Xin.

She does seem to want to live as she pleases in this new life, and to behave honorably towards her new family, the loving Shens and Taos.

She has, confusingly, two stepsisters surviving, one from each side. The Shen girl seems to be an ally? The Gu is definitely bad news.

nice!

Uh, they broke the wedding into two sections over 20 and 21. Cruelty.

Just went to look at the credits again -- he disappears, no new marriage is indicated, although it looks like Prince Xin will be a problem, and the final scene has the CP at the head of the palace stairs defending...the Princess.

I have said all along that she is in training to be the Empress. All of her skills are developing in that direction. While the Emperor should stay on the throne for a while yet, if she has a child she may become regent in the years that the CP is away.

Yes the opening credits rarely lie, so the scenes after the disappearance must be true.

I have heard that he fakes his death. My worry is how will she navigate a few years without him? The word was 4 years apart but that must be shortened in the drama.

Will the brother princes stay under control?
What about Bu Shu lin, she will have to stay in the capital to help, which is dangerous for her.

Love ZJM. Love the jianghu! Hope it is a great show!

He is the over-the-top master. It is a mystery that he hasnt done black comedies back to back.

He just hasnt gotten the roles he deserves; it is so frustrating that now he will be out of action for a couple of years.

Oh well. He is great at villain roles which are never out of fashion, so I guess we will see him back with that wild look in his eyes in '28.

you misunderstand me completely.

I do not fear for WCR.

If fans like it in China there must be reasons.

Here are my guesses.
The CLIP-UNIVERSE goes for our English-speaking world too.

It looks like a republican era microdrama. Well. microdramas are incredibly hot in China. Maybe the crew ere trying for that effect -- all those nighttime shots and the pounding feet of history?

Pretty clothes and who cares about the politics. All those shots of gorgeous shoes. The women's fashions are particularly appealing -- modern but not workaday.

Fascination with the rich and famous -- the 20s and 30s in China are your era! The rich got richer and the poor got really miserable.

ZLH and WCR can sell anything in the nouveau CLIP-UNIVERSE. Nobody watches the show they just live for the clips; something to swoon and quarrel and fight over.

I am not watching it for now. A lot of the drama is riding on poor ZLH's shoulders. I fear for him.

I am only at 22, but I have been tracking the ways in which the actor He YiQian is looking less and less weak.

They are still concealing his stockier waist with humongous sleeves and judicious use of fake waistbands, but his strong chin is now more visible now that they have removed the fluffy hair bangs. They had to, he is now in full court hairdo which is strictly pulled back.

In the garden after court what an epic faint he pulled!! Backwards into the arms of his own attendant!!! Worthy of a tango move!!!
Is that close to the last one we will get?