minki4

Found out about this drama 3 days ago, read the novel summary and now I can’t wait for it to air.

The main couple have insane chemistry. Drama watchers will forgive anything if the romance is hitting. The ratings actually dropped from 8.8 to 8.7..I guess because the couple are having some misunderstanding now. When they reconcile and she starts taking revenge on her brother, the ratings will shoot back up.

After watching Coroner’s diary, I was looking for a similar drama and stumbled upon this one. I wasn’t expecting much starting it, but imagine my surprise when I found out what a gem this drama is. It’s one of those dramas where you go in not knowing what to expect but you are blown away by the thoughtfulness that went into the script. It may not be as romance heavy as the coroner’s diary, but it has the superior script imo. I don’t even think the romance is lacking, the couple had a very calm and mature chemistry, and I loved all their scenes together, especially because it was quite realistic and it didn’t interfere unnecessarily with the plot.

The female lead is one of the cutest fls I’ve had the pleasure to view on screen. She is very smart and resourceful, but naive, which is unfortunately because she has been shunned and looked down on, all her life for being a coroner’s daughter. But this experience doesn’t make her bitter, instead she just took it in her stride and remained so optimistic, ambitious, and above all, very kind and sweet. It’s easy to see why ML adores her.

The Male lead is the star of this show imo. He doesn’t have the classical idol actor looks, but as the show went on, his intelligence, charisma, and aura would make it impossible for you to imagine anyone else playing Prince An. He is one of the smartest cdrama MLs I’ve seen, the way he pieces seemingly unrelated clues together is awe inspiring and he is great at plotting too, I completely understood why everyone respected and feared him. What’s unique about him is that, he is not the typical cold male lead. On the contrary, the way he carries himself shows the prestige and aura of his title, yet he is very upright, down to earth and fair to everyone. With the fl, he was not a simp, but he was not overbearing either. Even before he fell in love with her, he genuinely respected and appreciated her talents, and he was so accommodating to her from the first day they met. When he realised he was in love with her, he acted on it without hesitation. There was no unnecessary misunderstanding, love triangles or the likes, just a wholesome and sweet couple that mutually trusted, loved and respected each other.

Also, one good trait of a great show is how well fleshed out the supporting characters are. In this drama, although the ML is definitely the brains, the supporting characters are equally smart, and the villains definitely gave the ML a run for his money in the battle fields of wits. I also adored the relationship between the second couple, they were really sweet. And one of the best parts of the show is the utterly adorable relationship between the ML and his elder brother, the sweetest brotherhood I’ve seen on screen.

The only con of the drama is that the last episode was quite rushed, but since the drama ended well and everything was resolved, I don’t mind it so much. Anyways, if you are in the mood for a cdrama with a completely engaging plot encompassing brotherhood, friendship, betrayal, political intrigue, romance, etc, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Episode 24 teaser..ugh Chu Zhao is like a damn cockroach that won’t die. I have no heart to watch their prolonged misunderstanding. I’ll wait till it has been resolved then binge everything.

I don’t understand why Chu Zhao keeps hovering around He yan when he is engaged to the prime minister’s daughter. He is so annoying.

The drama and the novel have different plots in this instance. In the novel, He Yan was reborn into the body of another young woman, so that description makes sense since it’s another female body.

But in the drama, no such rebirth took place. Instead, He Yan has lived as a man all her life and is a seasoned general too.

Yea, I had to bring down my expectations to enjoy the drama. Like I said in earlier comments, it’s not only that she doesn’t look like a man, she doesn’t even act like a man. I mean..again, it’s obviously done this way to build up chemistry and I’m sold in that aspect. But then sometimes, it’s hard to not raise eyebrows considering she has lived all her life as a man, but she is always gropping the male lead (getting into his bath really?), and the constant cutesy, flirty, spoilt attitude around the male lead has me rolling my eyes at times, cos it’s like they are not even trying to make the main premise of the drama believable atp. Idk any male soldier, feminine looking or not, that would act that way randomly around their male general, even if they grew up together. But well, I guess, the chemistry is good enough for viewers to ignore the very obvious plot holes.

Crystal Liu was actually believable as a man in Mulan. See this shot for instance - https://share.google/HcUAznlHQfW1BCkZU
You could tell the production actually tried hard and succeeded in making her look like a male soldier, and this is one of the most beautiful women in the world, mind you.

I don’t have any problems with Zhou ye playing a man, she could pass for a really scrawny one I guess, but my pet peeve is that the director/make up artists made no attempt whatsoever to make her look like a man. Coupled with her petulant, spoilt behaviour with the male lead, you just have to suspend disbelief to enjoy the drama. This is an idol drama, so I understand they did it this way to primarily focus on romance, and it works in that aspect, I mean it’s the main thing fans are talking about even now. But imo, neglecting this aspect will prevent this drama from actually becoming great, because viewers will always harp on this point.

If you have to put ill*gal sites to watch the drama in the comments, please put it as a spoiler at least. That’s why these sites keep getting banned.

I think you should put these sites as a spoiler, else they would soon get banned.

All the concerns are valid, but this is a cdrama, and a gender bender genre none the less, you just have to suspend disbelief to enjoy it. Let’s be fr, it’s not just that the FL is not believable as a man, it’s the fact that they didn’t even make any attempts to try and make her look like one. But knowing how harsh cnetz are, seeing as they are already attacking the ML for his looks, imagine how harsh they would be on the FL if she doesn’t fit their beauty standards (even if she is supposed to actually try and look like a man).

I have never seen any gender bender cdrama where the FL convincingly looked like a man, infact this drama is a bit better because the FL has on minimal makeup. In other dramas, the FL has a full face beat and glossy lips but we are expected to think she is a man because she is dressed like one.

So far this drama nails the chemistry, romance and revenge parts, it could be really successful, but expecting realism is unrealistic unfortunately. It’s romance first and foremost, which is why they made the ML “realize” she is a woman so soon, so the romance can advance quickly.

The run time per episode is short too, some episodes are barely 35 minutes long excluding opening and ending theme. I guess post production editing shaved off a lot of scenes.

Watched first 5 episodes and in my opinion, You just have to suspend disbelief to enjoy this drama because He Yan looks like a woman, acts like a woman, talks like a woman, smells like a woman…to cut the long story short, she is just not believable at all as a man, but since the commander has no issues with it, I don’t have either. It will be interesting to see what funny scenarios play out between them as she keeps pretending to be a man though.

One other critic I have is that the drama didn’t allow He Yan time to really grieve and contemplate her next steps, and it lessened the emotional impact of what she went through in the hands of her family. It seemed like she fell off a cliff in one scene, and in the next scene, she is all good, and in the next scene she sets off to join the army with a goofy persona. For someone who has been subjected to such horrible tragedy back to back, it’s frankly a bizarre reaction.

In the double, another drama adaptation of this author’s work, I recall XFF was quite depressed and suicidal after her ordeal, and JL had to hold her back. In this drama, I guess He Yan is supposed to have a happy-go-lucky personality, but even a saint will be heartbroken for a short while at least after going through all that before moving on.

The scene I’m talking about takes place after the pond scene.

She didn’t lose her walking stick in the pond scene by the way cos the male lead saves her. But after she left the temple, she was walking with her stick to guide her way, then the scene suddenly cuts to her crouching and feeling around without showing how she suddenly lost her stick. It’s clear that it’s an editing issue.

In the first episode, how did she suddenly lose hold of her walking stick. The editing in this drama is quite sloppy.

You do realize that the “visual hole” (and I HATE that word btw) between the ML and FL according to CNetz is LYN right. So seeing this comment is funny. Obviously you are entitled to your preferences, but If you read this novel, they couldn’t have cast the FL better, she fits the novel character to a T, and zu’er is stunning too. LYN is doing a great job as well, which is why the drama is doing so well.
Besides, considering the beauty standards for women in that era (Petite with rounded face), she would have been seen as prettier than all the ladies you mentioned.

15 year olds today won’t be able to cope. Even adults today will find it hard. Then, you had to be smart and resourceful because it was a life or death thing, kids today will refuse to take responsibility for anything because their “frontal lobe won’t finish developing” till they are 25.

All the people she killed deserved HE too. The best that can happen is that she will have a chance for redemption, but if Chen ye had to die, then she can’t possible stay alive after killing her father and repeatedly torturing her sister.

Cang Shan and Chen ye. At the episode you are in currently, Chen ye seems really evil but he has a tragic backstory that is really heartbreaking. His death is the saddest in the drama.

The funny thing is that he went viral for his anime like visuals during LBFAD and also in this drama.

Anyways, something with cnetz is that they are always hating on someone. But it’s not all of them per se, it’s just the threatened fans of other actors/actresses. It’s not limited to Dylan, I noticed Bai Lu for instance is always getting hate.
C Ent is very cut throat and there is only room at the top for few. So fans have this pull down syndrome where they try to eliminate competition because they think it will leave more room for their favs.

Unfortunately, this behaviour carries over to Ifans too. That’s why you see weird haters congregate on the Mdl page of a drama rating unaired episodes of the drama really low and constituting a nuisance in the comments.