kaister

That's not her. This actress here is 李雨奚 (Li Yu Xi, born 1990). The one in your link is 李禹熹 (Li Yu Xi, born 2002). It's difficult to distinguish Chinese actor/actress with just pinyin.

In the novel, she's actually reborn into a different body. No time travel, she simply took over another body after original He Yan died. Different identity and her new body is relatively frail and weak...thus she's not as strong as before. The training section of the story is supposed to show her slowly regaining her strength and skill back.

However, they've removed the "rebirth" angle of the story but still kept some elements same as the original...like that she's weaker than before...for some unexplained reason. Unfortunately they don't keep things consistent for the show. They essentially did the same with "The Double", i.e. removing the rebirth element. Hoenstly I don't think you lose much from the change. Particularly true here where there no time travelling element (ie. main lead dont use previous life knowledge to advance the story).

I do agree it's entirely the ML fault why the relationship deteriorated in the the first life. He could've easily deescalated their tension and resolve their misunderstanding easily.

I think the reason why so many people hated the FL over the ML is that they weighted the PWX & QZZ relationship differently than LR & SRQ relationship. One couple was never intimate with one another whereas the other couple is very intimate with each another. The worst that PWX did to QZZ is hug her, whereas LR and SRQ are sexually intimate. Again some people weighted things differently where these things matter, and on the other hand some people don't think it matters at all.

Honestly best to just not read that chapter at all. It's a better story without it.

SRQ wanted his illegitimate nephew (secret only he and the queen Shangguan Ya knows) to ascend to the throne. He has to clear way by removing both Li Chuan and Li Rong (the true legitimate lineage) from power, hence the need to kill them. Remember the Li family destroy to Su family so he's highly motivated to perserve and protect the last Su bloodline, his nephew, the son of Shangguan Ya and his brother Su Ronghua. SRQ is castrated at this point in the past timeline.

And yes, the f'd up part, is he does truly love Li Rong. Hence, why PWX asked SRQ if "his wife and family are on opposing side, who would his pick"? In the end, he chose family over love.

That's 深宅进阶录 / Shen Zhai Jin Jie Lu

There's no official English title so don't bother translating the title.

An excellent short drama of hers. Funny enough I just watched this and was wondering whether there was a mydramalist of hers. Unfortunately, her info here is sorely lacking. She did a lot...I mean a lot of short dramas and some of her more popular one aren't even listed here.

The storyline is terribly flawed but still it's a fun, enjoyable drama. It's super enjoyable as long as you're willing to suspend all logic and plot holes in its storyline.

Well..."acting like teenagers" is a pretty broad stroke. Not all teenager acts the same way.

Love in Between female lead is around 18 and although she could be stubborn at times she's very mature for her age. In fact, she's more mature than the ML, who's supposed to be a few years older. Yes she's a completely different character than the female lead here. She grows up by herself for 10 years fending for herself out in the street. Completely different character. The point is, writer have freedom to write their teenage lead however they want.

Sure young character should be immature. It's a standard general behaviour. But even with that...there's a wide level of immaturity. So I thought it's fine that some people don't like her character. She's annoying and stupid at time but it's the type of character she is.

I think the 2nd FL is placed there so you empathize and like the FL more. And it works. Imagine if the sister is actually a nice and kind girl. Now your focus is how entitled and annoying the main female lead is. LOL

Well neither of the female leads are likeable characters. They both have their quirks and annoyances. I feel like it's in the characters. I think they both just decent acting wise.

The male leads are more likeable.

I can list out all the flaws the drama has, which it has tons of, but it's rather pointless.

It's not a serious drama and the writer knows and understand that and just ran with it. Everything is illogical from the get go and the writer doesn't even plan to introduce "logics" anyways...tone is already set.

The drama is crazy...it's like car crash you just can't stop staring. I'll probably heavily spoil the first 12 episodes.

Story:

Quick character introduction:
Wen Su Jin (female lead), is the carefree 2nd daughter and only legitimate daughter of a general. She is naive, clumsy, dumb, and really reckless. Like entering a palace and not keeping a low profile. In fact, she's so notorious in the palace...everyone knows her. She gets in trouble so much.
Xiao Yu/Prince Yu (male lead) is a young king pushed into the throne by her queen mother after the previous king passed away but dislike his mother controlling behavior. He's hot tempered and kinda have a superiority complex. In fact, seems like the only people that's willing to be rude to him is his mother, brother, and Su Jin...who never know who he is.
Xiao Qi/Prince Jin (2nd ML) is the oldest son but not the direct son of the queen has most of his power strip away the the queen but slowly restored. He loves Su Jin and known her since childhood. He seems to have his group of supporter who sided with him in the court.
Wen Su Yu ( 2nd FL) is the older sister of the Su Jin but she's an illegitimate daughter. She look weak and scared most of the time. Secretly hated Su Jin since Su Jin always get what she wanted since she's the legitimate daughter whereas she never did.
Zhong Li (side character) loyal guard of Prince Yu. Stoic personality. Think Prince Yu too soft on Su Jin and acts totally out of character regarding to anything related to her.

I call him Prince Yu instead of King Yu because although people call him Yu Wang (wang=king)...he technically doesn't have full control. His mother seems to have more power. For example her mother issued an imperial decree to have Su Jin marries him without consenting him at all. His mother restored his brother's power without going through him at all. Beside his brother is also call Jin Wang (wang=king). They call his wife Yu Wang Fei...which is just the wife of Yu Wang...but I can't say she's the queen because generally Wang Hou is queen...so I might call her Crown Princess (or just not refer to her title at all). The mother is Tai Fei (again Fei is just wife of kings and princes) instead Hou (which is literally queen)..but I still call her queen mother.

Story starts with this Xiao Yu's wives kept on dying so his mother just keeps on issuing new wife to him. Su Jin is supposed to attend a gathering for the queen mother so she can select Prince Yu a new wife but she doesn't care a kept on running away. Her sister, a neglected illegitimate daughter who's not qualify for the selection process, when in her place with a mouth covering. FL bump into the ML outside (who didn't care about selection). Queen issued an imperial decree for Su Jin, daughter of General Wen, to marry Prince Yu. Prince Jin rushed to the Wen manor and declared Su Jin is originally bestowed to him by the late emperor. However the letter he provided as proof is not an official imperial declaration. Prince Jin is unhappy especially since his power were slowly taken away that his fiancee will be taken too. Prince Yu, who although don't care who he marry, didn't want his brother to marry her either because he consider him a threat to his power. Su Jin vent to his sister that she doesn't want to get marry so her sister Su Yu, who harbor feeling for Prince Jin and was hoping to marry him, decided to take her place get marry instead. So Su Jin fled, bumped into Prince Yu, who at the same time is hunted and ambush by men tried to kill him. Su Jin and Prince Yu ended up stranded together but Prince Yu was suspicious of constantly running into her (neither know each other's real identity...which is one of the main plot device used throughout first 12 episodes) . On the other hand, his loyal guard Zhong Li made it to Wen manor to mediate between him, Prince Jin, and the queen mother. Queen mother offered to restore some of Prince Jin power if he relented to this. Prince Jin, didn't want to give up his fiancee having already given up a bulk of his power, threaten to kill himself instead. Su Yu took off her cover and agreed to marry Prince Yu to save Prince Jin. Prince Jin realizing it's Su Yu decided to relent. Su Jin told Prince Yu she just want to run away to get help to stop a wedding without being too specific. Prince realized she probably somehow related to Wen manor helped her a bit. However, Su Jin is already too late and already entered the palace. Su Jin was sad her sister had to marry in her place snuck into the palace by pretending to bu Su Yu personal maid Jin Yan (a fake name she told Prince Yu) to find a way to rescue her sister. Obviously she ran into Prince Yu who already super suspicious of who she is and whether she's secretly working for Prince Jin, whether she's part of group trying to assassinate him. She like him and interpret her constantly running into him as a sign he's saving her. She's crushing on him hard and Prince Yu see it as her flirting and seducing him. LOL

Dang so just trying to lay the the basic is already too long.

She's now pretending to be a maid, walked around with his amulet that he gave her when he wanted to help her early on, ran into him. She was walking around freely with an amulet he gave her so she thought he's someone with power in the palace...but jump to the conclusion he's the head guard Zhong Li (she asked people whos Prince Yu closest guard)...he was dumbfounded but just went along with that. LOL

Meanwhile Zhong Li noticed Prince Yu constantly running into her. Warned him to not get involve with her. Prince Yu, though weary of her identity, actually like her brash, rude, and stupid behavior. He told, Zhong Li, that they need to monitor her and find out what's her plan is and who she's working for and inadvertently ended up constantly rescuing her...LOL...Zhong Li knows what's up and just rolled his every time Prince Yu went to "investigate" her. LOL On top of that, since she mistaken him for Zhong Li, Prince Yu always make Zhong Li take off his cloth so he can disguise himself when he wants to go meet her.

Prince Jin also eventually found out Su Jin went into the palace to rescue her sister. He try to find ways to take Su Jin out but found resistance especially from a brother who constantly see him as a threat. To make the matter worse, Su Jin as Jin Yan the maid, got into trouble and banished another part of the palace and not allow to leave the palace. So now she's stuck there...beside Su Jin doesn't want to leave without getting her sister. (and the fact she like Prince Yu, who she thinks is Zhong Li the guard). Prince Jin constant appearance in the palace made Prince Yu realized. Prince Jin IS slowly accumulating power but I can't tell whether he has evil intention or just trying to gain power to protect himself. He also seem to really like Su Jin even though Su Jin calls him "little master" because it seems like he's her master for a little bit. Master of what...I dunno...

Su Yu is constantly being bullied is still neglected even in the palace. She secretly hated her sister because she always gets what she wants whereas she never did. Prince Yu dislike the weak demeanor Su Yu constantly puts up and hated her character. He sees her as being fake and are rather harsh on her. Also, since Su Jin, whos known as her personal maid, constantly gets into trouble. She's taking tons of flacks which also turn queen mother against her. Su Yu also know previous wives are keeps on dying so she needed to constantly watch her back. In fact, FL see vision of her sister dying after drinking something...it also one of the biggest reason why she stayed in the palace.

This is basically how it the story goes.

I put in my two cents after finishing the first 12 episodes.

The drama has no story, no logic, annoying and stupid female lead and thoroughly illogical behaviors from its character.

However the thing that I notice is that I was never really bored watching the 12 episodes. If you're here watching this drama, you're really here to watch all the wackiness and nonsense. LOL

I'll go into detail in the post following this one:

It's crazy and wacky. Fun if you just want to watch light hearted stuff.

However, it has no story, no logic, annoying FL and two MLs that's just so in love with the FL without any logic or reason...lol...

You're really here to watch it for its zaniness really.

I think low rating comes from two things:

1. The story - this is a very light-hearted comedy that doesn't take itself seriously. As such...it really doesn't have much of a story. It's more of a sitcom where it's just conflict after conflict. And you're just here to watch the characters' antic. Like why certain things happen and why it happen....the writer's like well let's just not worry about these things. Some people like to tune out their mind, while other cant tolerate nonsensical story.

2. Female lead - the FL is a clumsy, naive, dumb, walking conflict building machine. Literally all conflict is caused by her one way or another. She should die a million times but she survive...just cause well she's the FL...and the two ML constantly doing everything in their power to save her when she gets in trouble. Some find the FL cute and endearing while other find her annoying.

So why even bothering watching this? It's a fun rom-com that not bad as long as you can shut off your brain. It's like a car crashes...you know it's gonna be bad and ugly...but you just can't help look anyways. It's a character and situational driven drama...you watch it for all its craziness.

Zhou Ting Wei's character is probably the most mysterious of all the characters that gets significant screen time. I quite like his character. One thing I realize about ZTW is that even though he doesn't land lead role, he chose to play really interesting secondary characters. Not sure if this is credited to him or his agent.

One of the thing I really like about this drama. A female character's male disguise that actually looks like a guy. I was pretty impressed.

Ok we seems to have differing opinion on acting and actor's responsibility. That's fine we don't have to have the same view. However, at the end of the day, these actors and actresses are people too. So show some respect.

You people?

Look I don't have a problem that you don't like her and her acting. That's fine. I don't think Yukee's acting all the great either. But the way you express it is just too much. It's one thing to criticize but it's another when it's just straight up personal attack.

Literally one of the biggest thing that's bothering me about the drama. I mean it's heavily hinted at that the ML and FL likes each other but the FL is clearly keeping him at bay. She doesn't want to be deal with love at the moment because she been devoting the last 10 years of her life trying to find a way to save her master. But she never openly declared her love to him like the ML did. ML is constantly pestering her to the point of even openly calling her his "future wife" to his disciple and in front of her. Like it really threw me off in the beginning when they BOTH realized they know each other when they were kids in the cave...he just straight up held her like they're long lost lovers. And she gave this WTF are you doing look...it's hilarious. Looks it clear that he cares a lot about her, comes to her aid as much he can, and I've no problem believing that his character would sacrifice everything for her. However, it's just the way this character act at times just rubs me off the wrong way. It's like his character is stuck between being romantic and creepy at the same time.

Otherwise I do like one of the dynamics between the ML and FL. The FL is very strong-headed and loner type that's too proud to ask for help. The ML is more level-headed who forces her to think carefully before her actions which is very reckless at times. He has good intention of helping her by crafting out plan instead but plan doesn't always go as planned and sometimes her brute force method works better. LOL. Another thing I appreciate about the drama, not all plan, despite how clever it is, works as intended. It is so common in drama where no matter how crazy or convoluted plan is, just simply works with everything falling into place as intended. Though even this drama have some of these.

The secondary couples are not as well established in the drama. But I do find their romance cuter and a little more endearing.

Chang Ge? Probably just bromance at this point because it's clear Zhu Yan harbor feeling for the female lead.

Dude you need to stop!

The drama has tons of flaws: from its storyline, direction, characters, filming and sound but yet the one you're so focused on and been obsessively going after is attacking actor & actress...mainly Yukee Chen. It's one thing to give your critique on the drama but what you're doing is too much.

Look I'm not saying Yukee is an amazing actress or anything but I thought she did well in some part and she's lacking in some other scene. For example, I thought she acted well with some scene with Mu Yuan and I thought she portray a young girl in love rather well. Whereas there are scene, particular those with SGT, where I thought she didn't deliver the emotional impact she's supposed to display. Partially due to bad writing and partially due to how Yukee emote these feelings. However, unlike you, I can critique Yukee's acting while at the same time still recognize her acting effort and the flaws in her characters.

That's the problem with people like you. You guys have a hard time separating actor and the character they play. I'll give you a few example to illustrate my point.

Shangguan Tou/Leo Luo
Leo portrayal of graceful martial Shangguan Tou the best he can. However, SGT is a flawed and contradictory characters. His character's action (noble idiocy, wishy washy back and forth with CZX, blaming his past for his action) made his character so unlikeable, you almost would rather root for the 2nd ML instead. This is all in the character and not the actor. For example, Leo portray a character tortured by love beautifully in some of his scenes. However, I just can't feel sad for his character in those scene because of his character's action in pushing the FL away in the previous scenes. Like how am I supposed to feel bad for SGT. Now is it really Leo's acting at fault here? Leo can act the hell out of the melancholic scenes and it wouldn't have made a difference. It's not gonna fix his character's poor choice of action and me feeling unsympathetic for his character. This here lies the biggest problem I have with people complaining about the ML and FL lack of chemistry. It's not a lack of chemistry...it's just the character wishy washy back and forth made them so unlikeable it dilutes any sort of emotional impact they want to deliver in certain scene. For example, I thought SGT scenes with his dad are more impactful than most emotional scene he has with CXZ. Leo acted the hell out of those scenes as well.

When I first started this drama, I can already tell I will not like Leo Lou's SGT as much as Rongqi or Runyu. It's because Rongqi and Runyu are far more complex and interesting character than Shangguan Tou could ever be. Again, I'm disappointed more on his character than his acting.

Zhou Ting Wei/Mu Yuan
First off, I like Zhou Ting Wei and his acting, I've seen a few of his drama and I never have any complaint on his character or how he portrays them. So this is what I'll say instead...Mu Yuan is a far more interesting character than Shangguan Tou. I compare the two characters because they're the main character and second male character respectively with a shared love interest. Mu Yuan is a far more interesting character, is more tragic, has better backstory. It's far easier to empathize with Mu Yuan than it is for Shangguan Tou. Let's look at their love for example, Mu Yuan literally have to fight for his love, protect her, and watch her gets taken away by another man. Compared to Shangguan Tou, whose biggest struggle is not wanting to get CXZ involve in his family issues whereas CXZ literally have people coming after her life because of her father and martial art manual. Like dude, she has much more serious issue but still SGT can make the conflict of their love about his daddy issues instead. He never had to fight for her love, she's already in love him. Like who the hell are you gonna root for more.

That's the thing Mu Yuan is a flat out better character and Zhou Ting Wei portrayal did him justice. It's sickening and disrespectful for you to use ZTW as a tool to attack other actors. Smh

Patrick Quan/Prince Lu
Prince Lu is a deeply flaw character, He's a token villain that just does thing for the sake of being evil than following any logic or reason. i don't want to go too deep into his character because I don't want to spoil anything. However, despite this I thought Patrick Quan portray his character well. You really comes to hate his character. Like Patrick really make you think he's a sadistic bastard. Also, Patrick also plays Mu Su in Romance of Tiger, whose a good guy there, so if you guys saw Tiger and Rose you can see how different of a character he's playing here.

I can praise Patrick for his acting while at the same time slamming on Prince Lu cliche character and trophy behavior.

This is my point bad character does not equal bad acting. They're not equivalent to one another. You can have bad character & good acting and vice versa, good character & good acting or vice versa.

With all the flaws this drama has...the one thing I thought was excellent throughout was its acting by the cast. For example, the leader of Huashan and Emei who people hated because they're cliched characters are well-acted by the actor and actress. The rest of the guards for CXZ (Zhu Sha, Liu Li, Che Qu and even Hai Tong) whom lack any character development really are portrayed well be their respective actor and actress. The child actor who play Gu Gu also did a good job. The guy who play Xia Qing Wei and the girl who play Lin Feng Zi (who you have really high opinion of...which I'm not sure where the comes from) did well as well. As did most of the side characters like Shangguan Tou's father and sister, that poison kid, that lady from the brothel.


You can justify your hate for Yukee Chen all you want but nobody's gonna be fooled by your skewed logic and bias. The only thing worst than an obsessive fanboy is an obsessive hater. It's not healthy for you to act this way. Don't pretend this is about production value or acting. You're just using these ideas as a tool to fuel your hate.