Ershi

This is a very well written story with intriguing plot, interesting character depth and quite soulful acting from the main leads along with sizzling chemistry that fleshes out the romance and brings it out. However, as it did not follow the novel properly and wasted time on unnecessary arcs and characters, it kinda feels unsatisfactory as a novel character. The intricacies between the characters, the development of romance between the leads felt quite short and not fully fleshed. It feels like the director did not understand which part to edit, or which plot arc to give more attention to but just rolled with it which is very apparent in regards to the romance between the main leads. For example, in the novel after You fang yin is killed Jiang xuening was devastated and it was Xie wei who brings her out of her shell. when Xie wei was injured, jiang xue ning would place flowers on the windowsill of his room to show her care etc. Bai lu and zhang ling he had such excellent chemistry and it was mostly wasted and the vision unrealized. Even in regards to Zhang zhe, they just explored surface level tension and nothing more.
The acting of the main and supporting characters carried the whole drama and honestly this needed more consideration and definitely more budget.