Unfortunately, yes, the drama is doing a romantic pairing between a 24 year old woman and a 14 year old boy. Many…
I am from the Central Europe and for example one of my greatest king got married when he was only 7 years and bride was the same. When he had a son, he engaged him and at that time the son was only 2 years.
Definitively one of the best drama 2023. Great characters, acting, dialogues, storytelling, setting, costume etc. Of course I prefer HE, but given the situation when it is fitting, I don't mind otherwise. Very rarely I give 9,0 but drama deserves that, although it wasn't perfect. As a drama veteran, I am not easily moved, but here I smiled and cried a lot. Why do I have to finish it on Xmas day? :-) This year is quite strong for Chinese and Korean drama: this one, Lost you fovever, Lotus casebook, My journey to you vs. Moving, My dearest, Nine-tailed 1938 (and there is still bunch with high rates I still haven't seen).
Nice drama with a decent story line. But with 40 eps it is for me too soon liking her since ep 5 and she returns her feeling around ep 10. I especially liked FL character. Both main actors were great in their roles. After several dramas it was nice to see Xu Kai display his acting skills. The previous roles didn't allow him to portray more diverse feeling, It would be nice to see him playing more shady or interesting character than those always righteous heroes. Big plus is nice chemistry of our CP and lots of veteran actors. The story could be more interesting if we see it from perspective of ML. Starting from childhood, difficult life with his brothers, leaving for borders, learning how to fight and experiencing ffirst fight, kill, life and death, forming it his free spirited character and then meeting FL. Very often we have finished characters with little or no development (like here). I found it more intriguing seeing development, what makes them who they are. The change from a prince to a contained soldier couldn't be easy. Then it the path from a soldier to a crown prince would be even more meaningful.
Too many loopholes, for example: At the end of ep 2 you see ML trying to save the female criminal in a car...they arrived at the track field, talk on the phone with no injury and then in 3rd ep suddenly he has some bloody injury on his head? ...and I could continue...
The story itself is average chinese romance novel. I was still surprised that we could see FL tripping few times....and I cannot express how annoying or lazy writing was ringing of a phone in some bit important moment, they used it so many times. But Bai Lu and Dylan had an amazing chemistry, we could feel they clicked behind the scenes...so if you are in mood for something fluffy, a bit sexy with great chemistry, this drama is for you. The stories of other couples more than often are just fillers but here they were quite nice. All the actors did a nice job here.
Wow, korea goes strong this year in dramaland. This is a great drama with great acting. All actors were wonderful but there was one standing most. Ha Yi Chan character was full of youth vigor, cockiness with little restraint, unbelievable amount of energy but at the same time very sensitive, epitome of a nice guy. Such acting have to be quite draining...actually he remained me in this aspect another great performance: FL from Twenty-Five Twenty-One.
I like a cop going undercover dramas. But mostly I am disappointed cause ML usually manage to avoid doing anything really bad. I always thought how interesting would be to see how a cop is blackened step by step...and finally I've got this drama and I wasn't disappointed. In a sense I thought the ending will be similar to Vincenzo, where ML was depicted as the worst monster among them all, cause he chose freely his job=being evil with realizing what it means as opposite to those lost in greed, being born as psychopath and so on. Here, I almost expected that ML will also become worst of evil, leaving cop's way, his wife and taking over position of crime lord. In a way it would be the most poetic ending... but I also like the actual. I alsoapreciate all the hard work the actors put in. Their acting and fighting scenes were great, also it couldn't be easy all the non stop smoking, but it really fitted the story and characters looked more badass..
During watching the first ep I had inkling I saw ML somewhere...than I realized than he was Elder in My journey to you. His acting already catched my eye (together with 2FL and 2ML) and he is has proved me here that we can expect great roles from him.
First seven eps were hilarious and I enjoyed it a lot...then we have typical plot: to protect you, I will leave you. But overall it is quite nice drama. Rowon showed again he is excellent actor. We have typical cool and aloof ML with trauma, but Shin Yu was likable character due to fine acting and sense of humor.
Wow, this is a strong year in dramaland. We have Dearest and Moving and Bloodhounds in Korea and Lotus, My journey to you and Lost you forever. Some are rare gems, which can be seen only every few years.
The second season is just a shell of the his older brother. So many scenes felt empty, so many characters behaving differently than in the previous season (one of the touching scene was that So Moon didn't want to be counter because he is all that his grandparents have left but here he risks his life without any hesitation and that is just one of many examples). First season had lots of strong and emotional scenes (he is showing his grandma he can walk although she won't remember it in a while, but he was just that happy and wanted to share it with her), we had so many touching scenes with his friends and counters, but here most of relationships seem so empty, forced and it was just added to manipulate our emotion. The main story was quite weak, just focused on finding someone, then fights, some of them almost dying and this repeated again and again while slowly progressing in the main plot. I feel this show was mostly done on affect than telling a great story. You see, I still vividly remember how So Moon got his hand injured in previous season, how strong and impacting the scene was, compered here, where so many of them were on the brink of death and it left me untouched.
How I wish we've got just for once Lord of Heaven, who is really good guy. Mostly he happens to be main antagonist or he is narrow-minded or trust wrong people. How nice it would be see really powerful and wise main ruler of heaven.
We have seen many dramas with this topic, but I must say most of them disappointed me. How can ML as cop who goes undercover remains quite clean is beyond my understanding. To go up in organization he needs to dirty his hands, something needs to break in him....and this strong moment, which could be so powerful is mostly omitted in dramas. I hope we get to see some real blackening cause no-one can go untouched living such a life, witnessing violence on daily basis and remain clean.
Wow, wow, wow...one of the best drama ever, at least for me. China is going strong this year: this one and Mysterious Lotus Casebook are beyond expectations. I rate only few dramas over 9, but this one deserves it. A story, character, acting, music and settings (costumes, architecture) were so superb. We have one FL and 3ML and in the beginning it was hard to say who is the real ML as we have typical concept two children...but what a novel concept that Cang Xuan is the main lead, but not love interest. As there are hints of shady business about who is father FL, I think that they are cousins is proven. Acting was so great, I loved most of dialogues, so well written with lost of interesting views on life, how to live it and l liked the diversity, there is no clear line saying this is the rightful, correct path. We can see that CX and XY repeat many times that they are not very good people and can be cruel to others and themselves (XY was ready to shoot her grandfather or CX broke Fl legs just because). Such a complex characters were acted so wonderfully, their micro expressions showing their pain, happiness, disgust were so on par and fitting their roles. Not many actors can do that (especially great were XY and XL). It was also good that camera was really sensitive during emotional scenes and gave us time to feel it with characters, especially in the last ep during coronation it was a great touch to see XC looking up to his grandfather from kneeling position. I think such a small details make this drama almost perfect :-) From all the main leads I would say that an actor playing TSJ has most tricky character. As being nice can come across like boring compared to XC or XL, it had to be hard to portray it. I confess that my most favorite was XL cause he is such a interesting, never know what he will do in the next scene character and it was most intentense scenes for me when he met FL. But all actors were great and I don't think it was easy to work in this drama as we have so many strong emotional scenes in every eps, it must be quite draining to do that for several months.
The story could be more interesting if we see it from perspective of ML. Starting from childhood, difficult life with his brothers, leaving for borders, learning how to fight and experiencing ffirst fight, kill, life and death, forming it his free spirited character and then meeting FL. Very often we have finished characters with little or no development (like here). I found it more intriguing seeing development, what makes them who they are. The change from a prince to a contained soldier couldn't be easy. Then it the path from a soldier to a crown prince would be even more meaningful.
We have one FL and 3ML and in the beginning it was hard to say who is the real ML as we have typical concept two children...but what a novel concept that Cang Xuan is the main lead, but not love interest. As there are hints of shady business about who is father FL, I think that they are cousins is proven.
Acting was so great, I loved most of dialogues, so well written with lost of interesting views on life, how to live it and l liked the diversity, there is no clear line saying this is the rightful, correct path. We can see that CX and XY repeat many times that they are not very good people and can be cruel to others and themselves (XY was ready to shoot her grandfather or CX broke Fl legs just because). Such a complex characters were acted so wonderfully, their micro expressions showing their pain, happiness, disgust were so on par and fitting their roles. Not many actors can do that (especially great were XY and XL). It was also good that camera was really sensitive during emotional scenes and gave us time to feel it with characters, especially in the last ep during coronation it was a great touch to see XC looking up to his grandfather from kneeling position. I think such a small details make this drama almost perfect :-)
From all the main leads I would say that an actor playing TSJ has most tricky character. As being nice can come across like boring compared to XC or XL, it had to be hard to portray it. I confess that my most favorite was XL cause he is such a interesting, never know what he will do in the next scene character and it was most intentense scenes for me when he met FL. But all actors were great and I don't think it was easy to work in this drama as we have so many strong emotional scenes in every eps, it must be quite draining to do that for several months.