littleberry09

Same. I waited every time for their scenes to come. They suited each other so much. Whereas the main couple just felt so flat once they get past their problems and get together.

An excellent review! You perfectly summed up everything I feel about this drama. Ultimately not a bad drama, but just too bland and doesn't meet many expectations the main couple should realistically do. I was also much more invested in Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui's love story.

Same I think the lack of chemistry between the leads is why it becomes boring after Ep 20. Once they reconcile it doesn't have that tension and slight oomph anymore. They just feel more flat even when they say loving things or become intimate.

Whereas I really liked Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui's story! They had chemistry and looked good together onscreen eventhough they don't get much screentime. That little scene where she covers him with a blanket and he's actually secretly awake was sooo cute. In the adult arc they overtake the leads for me.

But overall I wouldn't recommend this drama if you want a strong main couple. It works if you specifically like fun youth, friendship dramas.

Episodes 5-20 was by far the best section of this drama. It starts of quite weak but gets better, and until the end of Ep 20 is doing great. The High School Arc until when the main leads reconcile in the present time is very well done. It's a great light hearted drama to watch for themes of youth, coming of age, friendship group, friends to lovers.

But I feel this suffers from the common syndrome of when the leads are together as adults post Ep 20 it becomes boring. I was more invested in Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui's love story over the main leads. Apart from them the last 6-7 episodes were quite boring and I was fast forwarding all the business and work related parts which felt like too many.

7⭐ /10

Thanks I've requested it 😊

If they wanted to fit in all the politics, war AND couple relationships then it should have been a 50 episode drama in my opinion (although realistically I realise this doesn't happen with dramas anymore)

There's so much that was missing from the lead couple, and also supporting characters and their couples. A lot of the main supporting characters vanish after the leads get married apart from Ye Xian and the main villains. Even FL's sister, who was a pretty big character until then, only gets 5 min's screentime after that and her love story doesn't get any attention. So whilst I rated this quite highly because I still enjoyed it, it was still disappointing in this aspect. With some changes it could have been an even better drama.

Yess I agree totally with this. She isn't actually socially inept - just unpopular with the crowd and initially a bit awkward. But once they form the friend group by after Ep 7 or so she is able to get along fine with all of them. One of the other girls, Ting Ting even says that LI Zixia is very nice when you get to know her, it's just because most people didn't bother to befriend Little Miss Smarty Pants before.

I'm half way through now and I've forgotten how she is any different from a usual FL in this kind of drama. I'm also not strictly complaining though, it's still a cute and entertaining drama.

Yep even the negative reviews don't fully capture it haha. I also came across lot of comments saying the ending really wasn't that good, but actually it wasn't just the ending...but the whole last bunch of episodes felt like they had been written by someone else 😂. It just changes direction altogether, no focus on the main leads who spent 29 episodes getting together, or of the other couples at all.

So surprising - I have a very similar backstory to you! 3 years of watching Cdramas, and whilst SOKP wasn't my first historical it was definitely a 10/10. I rated PoJ a 9.5 initially but now I'm starting to feel it could be 9.0. The middle part when she goes off to join the army, saves all the men and goes back to save her village felt like it really dragged to me. Yes I know it helped her character development, but I think that was still the slowest part of the drama. I also had the same issue with what happened 17 years ago? And to be frank as someone who had not read the novel, all the character ties and relationships were really confusing to me. I never understood how Qi Min was related for example. Thankfully other people had this problem too and there were character/family trees posted online.

I've not seen either actors in other dramas so I wouldn't know how they are generally. Maybe he doesn't in other dramas. But the 2ML does stand out compared to the ML when comparing them in this drama. Even if he fits the bill of another idol actor, I don't really mind that tbh.

It's both his face and his acting. Hu Yi Tian being stiff in his acting only shows him lacking when beside TXW who is far better. Whereas the 2ML actor is less awkward and stiff, you can tell when he's happy and when he's not, etc. I didn't get that impression with Hu Yi Tian even in 4 episodes. It's very rare for me to feel this way about one of the leads but I do this time.

Right, they should have swapped the actors round

Is it just me or does anyone else also think the actor who plays Shen Fu Xuan stands out more than the ML? Just my initial thoughts on Ep 3 and 4 - Hu Yi Tian doesn't really suit main role alongside TXW

Hoping this will air on Netflix like the other dramas written by Zhu Yi. Looking so forward to an Autumn or Winter release as rumoured

I agreeee with the overrated part, I only gave it 1 more rating higher than you eventhough I still felt the plot was problematic and non-existent. People here have arguing about the FL not being "selfish" compared to leads in other dramas though. I think that misses the point - if they have to be selfish there should actually be a strong REASON for it. Like in Lighter & Princess, or The First Frost. It seems like in this drama there wasn't really any big reason though. She just breaks up with him and they don't get back together for 10 years...when their situation could have been solved with an honest 10 minute conversation.

It's definitely not going to come out this year, we know that. It's still in the post production stage. Hopefully in the first half of next year.

Yes especially in Cdramas. Another recent drama was Never-Ending Summer. For most of the drama FL is required by some gang to pay her family's debt back, eventhough she was still 17-18.

I can already feel this - I've made it to the end of Ep 22, but I just don't have much motivation to carry on. I think I'll put it on hold for now. You're right that it focuses entirely on ink making with a mix of family relationships, and nothing else. The story of her getting her due payback from people like the 3rd aunt and the ML from the Tian family seems to be going NO WHERE and it's half way through the drama already. I don't think they needed to spend this many episodes on making ink and 42 episodes in total. Disappointing because it seems like a great historical during the first 10 episodes.

This was way before his blacklisting. This was filmed possibly a decade ago. ML's blacklisting is of no relevancy here, it was doomed to never release long ago

It was always Ryan Cheng on this page as far as I can remember.

I prefer Cheng Lei though, as you said no one ever calls him Ryan and he's always known as Cheng Lei. Some actors are commonly known by their English name, but never seen it much for Cheng Lei.