kdmd

I'll be honest: I watch these things primarily for the romance, but good production values do go a long way toward my enjoyment. The military armor in this was stunning and got a workout in the exciting fight scenes. The story was excellent, lots of political intrigue, military battles and encampments, and only a tiny bit of humiliation, but none of the torture that you can find in these shows. That said, I was looking for the romance between the ML and FL to get "spicy" and I waited a very, very, very long time for not much payoff. I guess this was in keeping with the book, but to have so much palpable love with little follow through, with the FL pushing the ML away all the time, well, it made me feel bad for the ML. When we finally had the consummation scene, it was over in about two camera angles. I just feel like the ML was waiting for the FL to mature, but physically, she never really grew out of the Tom Girl stage. This is unfortunate since the story is primarily about her growth. Matching the FL's vibe, I think, kept Zhang Ling He's performance a bit immature as well, since he did not seem as weary and "grizzled" a warrior as someone with 10 years on the battle field would be. He had the harder time, because his role was to figure out the mystery, rather than to have any significant character development. (Therefore, it wasn't a performance on the level of "My Journey to You.") The saving grace was the performance of the 2nd leads, smoking hot Deng Kai and Snow Kong, who really brought the sizzle to the screen. Yet, I experienced mixed feelings here, since the 2FL's character was being forced into the relationship and the 2ML (Deng Kai) was undeniably crazy. Deng Kai often plays this role, but here he committed 1000% and was superb. He even did something good at the end for those who were rooting for him. Lin Mu Ra, who played his equally villainous brother was stellar as well. There were other romances, but nothing to write home about. So, even though Zhang Ling, who is my most favorite ML (thinking "Story of Kunning Palace" and "The Princess Royal") was the lead, I was feeling as frustrated as his character probably was. Therefore, there are a number of other military/romance shows that I have liked a lot better, such as "Wonderland of Love" with Xu Kai and Jing Tian.