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A fast thrilling ride with beautiful visuals
A woman is given a second chance in life when she finds herself reborn 3 years before her death. She sets out to take revenge, romancing 3 men along the way whom she uses as chess pieces in her revenge plan.This is a well-produced mid-length drama with gorgeous cinematography and lavish costumes and set pieces. From the set decor to the multiple wardrobe changes they had for the main cast, including matching accessories for each outfit, you can tell a lot of effort was put into the art direction. A short drama that doesn't look cheap!
The story is fast-paced packed with a good assortment of office romance, two women fighting over art pieces, family feud, mystery and action, love triangles, birth secrets etc, so there is never a dull moment! The drama boasts a good OST that is used effectively -- I especially liked the choice of music at a breakup scene in ep 13, the lyrics of the song matched the events so well!!
Although the story is centred on the female lead, I was more invested in the story of the 2nd and 3rd male leads. My favourite was episode 14 which was more focused on the two of them, I thought it was a pity that there wasn't enough time to further explore their backstories. For example, in a later episode, we are told that Song Yanzhou managed to secure his position in the company and in his family, but we were never shown how he went about doing it.
Despite being a reverse harem drama, I felt it was no mere silly love triangle drama. Each of the 3 men served a different purpose in FL's revenge plan, which I thought was cleverly written. At the end, there was also a good explanation of why she chose 1 guy instead of the other two. Although she didn't end up with the guy I was rooting for, it was fine for me because I found myself wanting to ship the other 2 guys together instead, lol.
Acting wise, I think all the cast did a good job. I'm still fairly new to cdramas so I didn't know any of them apart from Lin Zehui (he's the sole reason why I even watched this). Lin Zehui did an impressive job as Song Yanzhou, his micro expressions and the way he shifted between a cold manipulative boss to a softie who unknowingly fell in love....it was simply amazing. Zheng Chunjing was an unexpected discovery for me. I thought he looked strange at first (I'm sorry) but I found myself liking and sympathising his character, plus the actor himself seemed quite likable in the behind-the-scenes and promotional activities.
What I didn't like about the drama were the horrific scenes of abuse inflicted on the female characters. It's strange that a female director would include such scenes in her show, I guess maybe she wanted to show how much women had to suffer under men? Those scenes were quite uncomfortable to watch.
Trivia: This director seems to like working with the same actors so you will see many familiar faces from her previous dramas "Money Is Coming" and "Ban Xing Fu Sheng", both also starring Lin Zehui. The poison that is mentioned in this drama is also almost identical to the one in "Ban Xing Fu Sheng", although the poison goes by a different name in both dramas.
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Underrated masterpiece
I started this with low expectations because of the mixed reviews, but I was left utterly impressed and blown away!The directing and cinematography for this drama is top notch from start till finish. It was an emotional and cinematic experience that felt more like a movie rather than your typical short drama.
I liked that the ML and FL were equally matched in intelligence and maturity, they had complete trust in each other and supported each other throughout the series. The romance is slowburn and sensual, conveyed through tender words, sound, scent and touch since the ML can't see. The romance between the second leads was also very moving, I'm glad there was no annoying love triangle.
The sound direction is impeccable. Besides the nice OST, I love the very apt choice of soft music and some classical tunes that matched this era which saw a blend of western influence on traditional Chinese culture. The soft tinkling of bells, the pitter patter of raindrops, the munching of food -- little ASMR sounds like these are also amplified so you get to experience the world from the perspective of our blind male lead. I thought this was ingenious.
There's not a single bad actor in the cast, everyone gave a powerful performance. Lin Ze Hui has always been a good actor and he was convincing as a blind man here. This is my first time seeing the FL and I found her very charming.
In fact, one thing I noticed is the presence of several strong female characters in this drama. The women faced abuse and disrespect from men in that era, but they showed resilience and fought back in different ways. The ML was weak at the start, and he gradually becomes stronger with the support of these ladies.
I would have given this drama a 10/10 if not for the last 6 episodes where I felt the story started to become unbelievable. It wasn't nonsensical, I still get the logic but it needed more suspension of believe, and I felt the drama lost a bit of its original charm then. But otherwise, the story overall was very refreshing, meaningful and intelligently written with unexpected twists. This drama moved me to tears at several points, and this means it's really good since I'm not someone who cries easily when I watch shows.
Like other reviewers have mentioned, yes, this drama has a lot of explicit graphic violence, which is surprising. It was brutal, but I felt the violence was understandable considering the time period and the character setup. I got used to it after a while and as someone who can't watch gory stuff, I was able to watch this without having to skip or fast forward.
Will I watch this again? A big YES!
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