mukkanna

In my opinion, the only thing to see in this drama is the outfits, which are great. I think the thing that hurt this drama the most was that it's unimaginatively based on an unimaginative source. The characters were mostly 1-dimensional caricatures to begin with, and the drama adaptation didn't do much to help with that. The second thing was that none of the characters were terribly likeable. Even the hero and heroine didn't get many "cool" scenes, so we're not invested in anyone.

Since I've watched a few of his older works, I'd like to say...I wonder if people are conflating "chemistry" with "character." Wen Kexing (WOH) is a flamboyant character who openly pursues his romantic interest and pretty much knows no shame. Pretty much all the other characters are a little bit awkward or inexperienced, and many of them are the ones being pursued. Can you imagine Han Ye (LOA) acting the same way as Wen Kexing to his love interest? It'd be totally out of character. Similarly, if Wen Kexing pursued a woman in the same way he pursued Zhou Zishu, he'd be creepy. Expectations of behavior are different.

That's because it's based on a not so great comic with a not so great cartoon adaptation.

Great costumes though :)

Sorry I took a hiatus...but from the few eps I've seen so far, I believe his attraction to liquor stems from the stories that Baili Dongjun (BDJ), Ye Dingzhi (YDZ), and Ye Dingzhi's fiance (Wenjun? I forget) heard when they were children. BDJ and YDZ wanted to be like the best friends in those stories, and since YDZ wanted to be the main hero, BDJ said when he grew up he'd be like the liquor deity. After YDZ was supposedly executed when they were children, that became the promise of a lifetime he had made to his friend. So, the meaning of liquor = loyalty and not forgetting his old friend.

What do you mean by moral value?

From what I can tell, she's a princess from a conquered country. The remnants of her court apparently fled north to try to establish a point of strength for a comeback.

I don't necessarily agree that he's a background board. They all have their personalities, and Xiao Se is clearly a reserved strategist type. He watches and controls the movements of others. If you think about it, that makes sense--that's what an emperor does, and he was the heir apparent for a long time. He's not going to be as flamboyant as other characters who are not in line for the throne. Other than his quirks with fashion, he's the archetype for what China thinks a good emperor should be: principled, steadfast, intelligent, wise, reserved, confident, strong, patient, realistic, and able to see the big picture and take the long road to achieve his goals if necessary. All of this is what makes him the person the others choose to risk their lives to follow. Imagine if there was no Xiao Se: I don't think the others would have worked together, and the plot falls apart.

I have 30 year old clothes that I still wear, despite having enough money to buy more if I wanted. My husband also rotates the same 10 shirts, 3 of which look identical except for the amount of wear.

So I don't have a problem with the idea of people (especially ones who ran away from home and don't have access to their family's fancy seamstresses) re-wearing clothes. Personally, I initially thought he was rather over-dressed for a tavern owner...he looked like a spoiled young master whose family has more money than it knows what to do with (which it turns out he is).

In summary, this might have been a purposeful design choice.

That's your opinion. Mine is different. Don't be rude.

My conclusion after finishing...it's either the writing, directing, or editing (I suspect mainly editing, because the editing is shockingly terrible for a drama with this level of resources). The actors and costumes were fine and deserved better. It's hard to manufacture "chemistry" when the writing/editing falls short. Though I believe they took a good crack at it.

I was impressed with Gong Jun's acting in the last few episodes. He does emotions and vulnerability so well. But the writing/directing in the actual fights might as well have been done by a middle schooler.

I disagree. He's very good with acting with his eyes. Saying someone is only good when other actors are good around them is a bit malicious. If anything, that just means that bad actors drag them down. If he were a bad actor, he wouldn't have done well with anyone no matter how charismatic they are.

I'd recommend you mark as a spoiler.

SPOILERS FOR SOURCE MATERIAL:
I wonder if skewed expectations about the relationship is the main issue here. These two characters didn't get together in the source material until the end, and the main point of their relationship is that the ML spends his whole life trying to win FL's love, and FL hid the fact that she'd fallen in love with him for something like 80 years. From ML's perspective, it's unrequited love, and from FL's perspective, it's a love she keeps hidden from everyone. Add in the FL's source comic facial paralysis, and it's a challenging setting to depict. Knowing this, I expected the drama to be mediocre and decided to check it out mostly for the costumes (which are awesome!).

To be fair, my preference is for wuxia stories, and xianxia/magic types have to have a hook for me to finish--usually a side character I like and want to know the ending for. I wasn't able to finish Ancient Love Poetry or Duoluo Continent or the Longest Promise even though those are supposedly good. I'm actually enjoying this more than I expected, though. Some of the non-canon additions and twists are quite good so far. There are a lot of likeable characters (for me).

The visuals are good so far (I'm only halfway through). The cuts are sometimes questionable (they seem in the first few eps to be cutting scenes in the middle of a line) but improves. The story and love line proceed pretty slowly, which I suspect is partially due to the FL's character (cool and aloof) and somewhat trying to appease comic fans by not completely changing everything in the comic. For me things only get interesting when ML is away from Tushan, so I liked the arc with the princess/bodyguard and then after ep 19 when he leaves for good.

Gong Jun's acting so far is on point. I still like his acting style; he does subtle emotions so well. Yang Mi is getting a lot of criticism, but being cold and aloof to the point where it's hard to tell how much she likes ML is her source comic setting. From that perspective, she's doing really well.

Maybe you don't like slow start relationships? Anle and this one both have a very slow lead-up. I personally don't prefer fast-building relationships. I find it harder to justify their behavior when there's (to me) not enough foundation in the relationship for someone to act completely out of their normal behavior patterns for the other person.

In WOH the relationship foundation only makes it by because they're both so damaged. Especially Wen Kexing's behavior in the beginning stages only makes sense in the context of his severe background mental issues. Advance Bravely I'm going to admit I couldn't watch without clicking through, and I don't see what either of them likes about the other person (much less seeing "chemistry"). But in both of those the pursuit was obvious and never hidden even from the start.

In the original source material the ML was already wooing her as a child, so it was even more awkward. Glad the drama diverged on that point...

Less slowly than a lot of other dramas, but some scenes are weirdly cut. It definitely could have been edited better.

I recommend you watch something else if this isn't your cup of tea. Don't waste your time posting :)

That's not Yang Mi's frozen face, it's Tushan Honghong's frozen face. She doesn't even move her lips when she "talks" in the source material.

I'm not sure she will. She's based on a character who doesn't really change facial expressions.