metrikfire

I'm on episode 6 so far and I'm confused... is it just me or does the show pick up flavor further along the way because right now it's a really under seasoned salad of nothingness. Like, I don't know if there is supposed to be chemistry between the two leads or if I'm psychologically resisting the chemistry because I know how young Ai Mi is. The politicking is also really... just really flat so far. Nothing is happening, people are very hot and bothered about 30,000 people dying but no one is doing anything about it, nothing is changing. The only thing that surprised me is that *one character* biting the dust so early on in the series.

I'm going to stick it out for a few more episodes and see where it goes.

Um are you mentally stable? Do you think MDL is a country and we’re all refugees here or something? Lmao.

Oh man. Everything about the Shuang and Jin’an pairing is so milquetoast. If this romance had a colour it would be beige. Are they even trying to make their pairing compelling? Even my brother’s half-ass congee has more strength than this watery slop.

That's probably because its the same director as Pursuit of Jade. He even uses several camera and production techniques in PoJ that he used in this show.

Alright. Made it to episode 37 and now I’m like… what are we doing here. How have they sandwiched PTSD and healing from trauma between half ass politicking and mediocre war games… is BEYOND me. Did they have too much money to blow through??? Were they so excited about MoLi that they had to milk that cow a little harder? We will never know.

What a tragedy to happen to such an excellent drama.

The real question is, how much pining is happening in this drama?

Okay on a scale of 1 to Constantine, how scary is the horror aspect of this? I mean I cant handle psychological horror like, I can’t even look at posters cause that 💩 lives with me for WEEKS after.

Harrrrrrd passss.

Ye Li suffered from trauma induced psychosis. A more extreme form of PTSD.

Honestly, at episode 33 now and I have to say that the themes of this show are severely misrepresented in MDL’s summary and tags because it has completely blindsided me. It’s definitely not fluff romance or period drama theatrics. The political intrigue is standard fare, but the two main leads are absolutely riveting. The whole team has done a really really freaking good job with building up Ye Li and Xiu Yao’s dynamic, from beginning to end. The arc is not in the characters but in their relationship. The music delivers. It’s masterful and meaningful. The soundtrack is built over several episodes to reveal the plot and character stories simply because of the way it has been arranged and enmeshed into key scenes and character developments.
I did not expect to be as moved by this drama as I have been. I don’t even know if I like it all that much, but I know it has left an impact on me.
Also I just love Cheng Lei’s face OML that white hair made everything better. What a silver fox hot damn.

I don’t usually write reviews for c-dramas because I’m so new to it, but once I’m finished I believe this drama is something I must review because wow.

Honestly Cheng Lei’s visuals are wayyyy too princely for him to do military style cargo pants and oversized denim lmao

OML what is happening here

Tragically, the quality of cinematic splendor has quietly slipped into obscurity as each episode slowly dips into standard format camera work, overly long pans and mid-ground setups.
Music is still good but kind of underutilized.

On episode 2 and I LooooooOoOoOoooveeee the cinematography. The colours!!! The soundtrack!!! I don’t know if the plot and narrative will go downhill later but omg Cheng Lei and Bai Lu goddamn all that chemistry and excellent acting.

lmao the trigger here is real. Let me guess, you're somewhere from south east asia and you'd rather roll over dead than admit that many east asians are ~extremely~ racist people.

I don't need to be woke to know when my family and friends are spewing r@cist garbage :P take a chill pill and sit back down. I can guarantee you, zhang ling he isn't going to fall in love with you for defending him on MDL lmao

The comedy is good tbh, but by a very thin margin. Frankly speaking, the whole show would have been better if it maintained the absurdist comedy throughout the plot and narrative. Because it is not absurd enough, the plot holes and poor non-sequitr decisions (especially by Chae-ni) come across as stupidity for the slapstick comedy. She does things that doesn’t affect plot, nor does it build character, nor is it even funny.

Chae-ni is by far the most poorly developed character in the show imo and that’s saying a lot considering we know nothing else about any other character. I mean Son Gyeong Un is by far the most fleshed out in terms of strengths, weaknesses and character development. He even has a whole husband-dad arc.

This scene with him playing the guzheng during the battle literally made me fall in love with him man that was such an epic scene.

Bruh. I’m Chinese. Chinese people do not talk like drama actors lol. Additionally, I live in Japan and even Japanese people know that their verbal language is not emotive. Sit down, keyboard warrior.

I mean, yeah. Not a fan of the masculinity comment because WTF is that supposed to mean? Like, this isn’t a historical documentary smdh, these devoid people. But otherwise, more than the pore less porcelain faces, I find their (C-drama actors) lack of expressions extremely off putting. I mean even Japanese dramas are not so bland, facially speaking. And they barely move their lips when they talk. I watched a clip of this drama and it was just watching Barbies doing random shit in an East Asian setting, basically.

Omg yes. The mother is the root cause of all of this tbh. I mean sure, maybe her father is a dead beat but this has been going on since Ju Yeong was a baby and not even defending her child is atrocious JFC.

Women like that become toxic parasites that suck the living joy out of people around them. She was a shit mom.