I was hesitant on starting this drama - mainly because I'm not a fan of WCR's acting (traumatized by her role with Yang Yang), But here, she is actually quite natural and I like her character. ZWY, nice to see him in a less than obsessed role. I can see this is getting to by the cliche drama of (ML hides big secret/identity and it will backfire one day, send ML to groveling after FL to beg for forgiveness, a period of separation and then rekindle their love. It's okay. I don't mind this trope when the sweet and fun moments are enjoyable.
This is like Cuan Xuan's next life (From Lost You Forever). There is a line he said in the trailer for Are You The One, that he wanted to be an ordinary man spending his life with her. Hope he does get it here.
He's not even married yet but already got a headache with all this concubine thing. 😂😂😂
Even better, he's not married yet but he is doing all things a husband would do (minus the sex) - brushing his 'wife''s hair, sharing the same bed. So unheard of in period dramas, haha.
This is such a disappointing drama so far. The pacing feels completely off ever since the ep 20 mark. The whole…
The only thing good about this drama are the costumes and the pretty faces. I was wholly disappointed thinking that it has to have a decent storytelling seeing all the pre release trailers, the BTS photos and that it was 40 episodes, got to be enough and not feel rushed. Well, they spent the time on useless plot that didn't move the storyline, then they gleamed over key moments and now we are rushing to see YDZ turn to darkness and being the leader of the "Beyond Sky" which I still can't understand when he has no real connection with them. So sad. I just want it to end
I am surprised the rating is still at just 7.8, Forget about historical accuracy, just watch it as a fictional…
Republican/40s war era dramas are hard to please the current viewership. You either like this era or you don't. Not to mention, there are so many of them that it blurs. I'm here mostly for Joseph Zeng as I find his character interesting to portray and is a marked departure from his other roles.
Is it just me or is anyone else finding it hard to stay focus on the story? I can here expecting high things for this drama. Neo has not disappointed me. The fight scenes are great..but the storyline..I'm finding it hard to connect with the plot itself. For starters, too many characters to keep up with. I'm not finding myself chasing the new episodes hence I am just on ep 13 now.
She's a duke daughter and apparently is a chess piece for her family to gain power by marrying her to the prince.
Based on my recollection of TBOY, she ran away with YDZ for a brief period after she was already a concubine to Xiao Se's father. Because she gave the prince (later be emperor in TBOY a son) and it was mentioned in TBOY that she stayed 'imprisoned' in the royal court for the sake of her son and not for Wuxin.
She's actually a really sad character. On top of YDZ and the emperor, she has Luo Qing Yang (the senior) who we knew in TBOY, pines after her for decades but she never really loved him.
I held up pretty good to not cry. Nothing really tugged my heart and not even XL's death caused me to burst into tears. But the moment he voiceovers about how he spent over a dozen years teaching XY how to use a bow so that she had the ability to protect herself (not carelessly use her body as a shield), how he protected TSJ so that she had someone to lean on and with his blood, she can breathe underwater, a place to call home. Welp that did me in. After setting her up with success to achieve that happy and ever after with Jing, he step by step took everything that he shared with her away (the memories in the mirror, the poison love bugs and lastly, he absorbed that pearl that contained her tear). He exit her life so as to not burden XY with the guilt of learning all the things he did for her. The one thing he left was the inscription of this on the globe that he had hidden in that doll. XL's blessing carried by XY forever.
While we've seen variations of this selfless sacrifice in c-drama and particularly in xianxia dramas, we haven't really seen one as extreme as XL. No one could have executed XL better than TJC. His expressions, his head turns, the tones in his voice. I makes me wonder what we are missing without seeing Winner is King.
I’m just on ep33. The way I see JX’s character from ep 31-33 is disappointing. The scene at his home where…
Her first mistake was to let Zeng Di get into her head. Zeng Di played into her insecurities and the seed of doubt just grew with little to no watering. But it was a bomb awaiting to be set off so rather sooner than later.
ep 31: After watching the fighting I am contemplating whether JX loved HT or not. The words that she used to describe…
XC was her baby but where I got really disappointed in her was her just leaving her baby to HT. She just left when she can't bring it to herself to even go to see her colleagues in person to say goodbye. She left her baby when she could not have full autonomy over its welfare and growth. That's not the way a matured and responsible adult would do.
My take on the blow up/break up: Both are at fault. HT - he misled her from the very beginning of his agreement to be her investor. He agreed to allow her full autonomy into the running of her business and it would not merge/be sold to another. Right there, their relationship was a power imbalance. It was an investor-entrepreneur relationship. The power imbalance is very apparent when they had their blow up. JX's fault lies in her being too emotional as a business owner.
I always thought from the very beginning that JX didn't understand the dynamics of a startup and how to attract investors. Her demands of maintaining full autonomy while seeking a high value investor was unrealistic. She has vision and she's skillful in her trade, I just don't think she does well as a big boss.
I understand why she was upset at learning about HH and HT's investment into her competing company. I also understand why she felt she was betrayed. But the words she used in her argument with HT were too hurtful because at the end of the day, she didn't lose her company - it was not taken from her - she just didn't have the full autonomy to run it as a big boss. She didn't want to be under anyone's thumb (because of her last employer) which is understandable. But while she is all upset over HT's business strategies which is felt as a betrayal, she isn't acknowledging how this is to ensure XC would thrive. When she cried in desperation to HT saying XC was hers and he had no say into taking it away from her - it just felt possessive. It's a company with shareholders. She's not putting XC in first place. She's putting herself in first place. While HT was in the wrong to not come clean with her (although from a business standpoint, he didn't owe her to tell her what other investments he has including one in direct competition) but he was in the wrong as her boyfriend.
In the end, people say she was being professional and a good boss for writing those individual emails to her colleagues- she treated them like her family - kudos to her. But she didn't show up at the business meeting to discuss the merger. That's not what a responsible leader would do. Instead, she leaves XC - in my view, she abandoned her baby because she didn't have full control of it anymore.
And while it is true that HT had in some way used XC to further his goals- it wasn't to the detriment of XC- and that was the line he was drawing. I also don't get why HT is 'scary' to JX. Scary because he was able to use the situation to his advantage? He can outwit his sister and competition? He wasn't scary to me - he was damn intelligent and he knows how to use his skillset and not abuse it to the detriment of others.
The breakup - HT was being very rational. Even his answer to the question of whether he loved JX was what a rational person may answer. But JX said she expected him to say he loves her to the end of the world and basically, a flowery answer - that's what a emotional person may expect. HT's answer isn't wrong but it reflects back to what his grandfather said - they have different outlooks life, values and goals - someone has to concede but both are prideful.
The breakup was necessary - and when they come back together they will be stronger.
I am super happy that Neo dubbed himself. He didn't in Back From the Brink (but I did like his dubber) and I desperately want to hear his own voice for these dramas. Once again, falling for which one of his outfits are my fave (I personally liked the darker ones for Neo).
She's actually a really sad character. On top of YDZ and the emperor, she has Luo Qing Yang (the senior) who we knew in TBOY, pines after her for decades but she never really loved him.
While we've seen variations of this selfless sacrifice in c-drama and particularly in xianxia dramas, we haven't really seen one as extreme as XL. No one could have executed XL better than TJC. His expressions, his head turns, the tones in his voice. I makes me wonder what we are missing without seeing Winner is King.
Both are at fault. HT - he misled her from the very beginning of his agreement to be her investor. He agreed to allow her full autonomy into the running of her business and it would not merge/be sold to another. Right there, their relationship was a power imbalance. It was an investor-entrepreneur relationship. The power imbalance is very apparent when they had their blow up. JX's fault lies in her being too emotional as a business owner.
I always thought from the very beginning that JX didn't understand the dynamics of a startup and how to attract investors. Her demands of maintaining full autonomy while seeking a high value investor was unrealistic. She has vision and she's skillful in her trade, I just don't think she does well as a big boss.
I understand why she was upset at learning about HH and HT's investment into her competing company. I also understand why she felt she was betrayed. But the words she used in her argument with HT were too hurtful because at the end of the day, she didn't lose her company - it was not taken from her - she just didn't have the full autonomy to run it as a big boss. She didn't want to be under anyone's thumb (because of her last employer) which is understandable. But while she is all upset over HT's business strategies which is felt as a betrayal, she isn't acknowledging how this is to ensure XC would thrive. When she cried in desperation to HT saying XC was hers and he had no say into taking it away from her - it just felt possessive. It's a company with shareholders. She's not putting XC in first place. She's putting herself in first place. While HT was in the wrong to not come clean with her (although from a business standpoint, he didn't owe her to tell her what other investments he has including one in direct competition) but he was in the wrong as her boyfriend.
In the end, people say she was being professional and a good boss for writing those individual emails to her colleagues- she treated them like her family - kudos to her. But she didn't show up at the business meeting to discuss the merger. That's not what a responsible leader would do. Instead, she leaves XC - in my view, she abandoned her baby because she didn't have full control of it anymore.
And while it is true that HT had in some way used XC to further his goals- it wasn't to the detriment of XC- and that was the line he was drawing. I also don't get why HT is 'scary' to JX. Scary because he was able to use the situation to his advantage? He can outwit his sister and competition? He wasn't scary to me - he was damn intelligent and he knows how to use his skillset and not abuse it to the detriment of others.
The breakup - HT was being very rational. Even his answer to the question of whether he loved JX was what a rational person may answer. But JX said she expected him to say he loves her to the end of the world and basically, a flowery answer - that's what a emotional person may expect. HT's answer isn't wrong but it reflects back to what his grandfather said - they have different outlooks life, values and goals - someone has to concede but both are prideful.
The breakup was necessary - and when they come back together they will be stronger.