How come I had never hear of this gem?
I stumbled upon this series by way of a random short segment showing up in my YouTube feed. Once I figured out the title of the series I found the full series of episodes on YouTube and started watching it. And it did not disappoint. This series is a classic hero-returns-from-presumed-dead-to-take-revenge story so the basic nature of the plot is not unique. However, the delivery of that plot is fantastic. Christy Guo is just so perfectly cast as the mesmerizing, mysterious vengeance-seeking Mo Wang / Quingchuan. Tall and with an ethereal beauty, she enters scenes with an almost supernatural aura. Her intensity of resolve is wielded like armor on top of unimaginable pain, both personal and social. As the story goes on to reveal more and more of what she was forced to endure by the selfish decisions of others, Guo's acting makes her rage becomes your rage. The rest of the cast is excellent. In particular, veteran actor Tian Miao, as the Empress Dowager delivers yet another fantastic performance. She steals scene after scene. I am not a huge fan of Zhour Zhan as the choice for the Male Lead, Xia Qiguang. To me, he simply looks too delicate and baby-faced to take seriously for a role like this one. It's a matter of taste, but I just think he's more of a 'SML' type of actor for me. That said, he did grow on me as the series progressed and he really, really delivered in a scene late in the series when Qiguang was breaking down and crying to Qingchuan. Beyond the excellent script and acting, another strong point of this series is length / editing / pacing. It is not a long series with only 18 episodes (fewer in some re-organized formats such as on YouTube). And there is no wasted screen time on 'plot filler' contrivances. Almost no minutes are wasted in this drama and it avoids most annoying gimmick that many dramas use just to fill out extra episodes. The concise story-telling that results from this is refreshing and captivating.
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