Editorials 
The acting was amazing, Xiao Zhan has gotten so much better in his micro expressions and subtle actions, he was completely Zang Hai and i was here for every second of his amazing performance. Zhang Jingyi was great as usual, such a talented woman really. But while everyone praises Zhou Qi (and rightfully so), my favorite performance besides Xiao Zhan's was Huang Jue.
He brought Zhuang Luyin as a character to life. He had the charisma, the appearance, and the presence that let you know whenever he was on screen that this was a general. A general that had tasted war and was soaked with blood and had no moral misgivings about doing whatever it took to get what he wanted. I absolutely despised his character but I couldn't help being in awe whenever he did something particularly bone chilling, like his last fight with Zhixing, him glaring at Cao Jingxian or whenever he turned his suspicious gaze on Zang Hai. And his fight scenes goddddddddd, alright let me stop simping.
I had a great time watching this drama honestly, great production, great actors, a gripping script and an OST that sticks with you.
I look forward to seeing what more Xiao Zhan will do.
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This review may contain spoilers
Biggest question is that is this worth all the hype?
First off, very very beautiful drama. It is very clear that money went into the right places for this and they got the right director for it. All shots were breathtaking. From the very first scene where the ml was saved in the snow to the last, this was a very nice cinematic work. Especially the calm ambiance of Lin’an, that town was the most beautiful place in the entire drama.Everything good happened in Xigu Lane, it was very a lighthearted, feel good type of vibe during that arc. When they didn’t wrap it up even more than twenty episodes into the drama, I was impatient, but when they finally moved it along to the capital, I found myself wanting to go back to the beginning.
Fan Changyu/ Tian Xiwei:
Changyu is absolutely my baby, that girl deserved for everything good to happen to her. Changyu is introduced as an orphan, her parents had been murdered by bandits (obviously we’ll later learn this is not the case) and to take care of herself and her younger sister she takes up her father’s old job as a pig butcher (you will not believe the number of times the words pig butcher is repeated in this drama). She is a fierce, independent and kind girl, and a very optimistic one too. She is a bit simple minded due to not having an education and sometimes she made dumb decisions, like knocking out the general meant to lead soldiers into war, she didn’t know, but yeah, dumb. I loved Changyu and her resilience even though some of the achievements the plot forced on her were very unrealistic. Because what do you mean this 19–20 year old somehow managed to kill the war generals that had been going to war since before she was a thought in her mother’s womb? Changyu’s war achievements and subsequent promotions to General were so illogical because once again, this was a young girl that had zero education, not to mention military knowledge but it is supposed to be believable how easily she killed Lord Changxin and won the war against him? Okay. Her relationships with the Zhao couple and that ragtag team was very nice to watch though, and Changyu herself as a character was very entertaining on screen. TXW really stole the entire drama for me.
Xie Zheng/ Zhang Linghe:
There’s not much to even say about this one because he literally did almost nothing the whole 40 episodes. He was always either injured or just serving face. For a so-called war genius titled Marquis, we didn’t see him fight a lot of wars. If he wasn’t aura farming somewhere then he was cutting himself, which to that point, I think this drama should have some sort of warning for self-harm triggers or something idk, maybe they did have it and it was in Chinese, I’m not sure. As it is a period drama and given the contexts, we can’t really say Xie Zheng was suicidal, but man he was out there cutting himself almost every scene. You’d think as a general that had to constantly be in some sort of situation that required him to fight he’d take better care of his health and not inflict as much harm on himself as possible but nope, whenever he saw a knife or sword his first instinct was to swipe the sharp end against his arm. Also, back to the teenagers with their entire two decades of life and only some experience taking down the bad guys that have been training decades before the leads even materialized as sperm is a tired trope and should be shelved, please. Despite all the above, ZLH served looks that haven’t been seen in a while, he truly looked so good in this drama really.
The last ten ish episodes were a huge let down, they had spent too much time on the Lin’an arc that the capital arc was just too fast paced and rushed and a lot of things were not properly explained. It was a huge effort for me to finish them and it actually took me two months to finally run out of things to watch and force myself to finish it. The Wei Yan/ Former Crown Prince/ Jingzhou massacre could’ve been slowly unraveled and properly visualized. Instead we have our two idiotic leads stupidly bumbling around–without much evidence mind you—and just convinced that Wei Yan was the sole perpetrator. They were actually so frustrating.
My god I’ve never seen a more useless puppet emperor; nobody fears or even respects him. My gripe about Xie Zheng belittling the emperor is that he also is just like his uncle, he did not want to help the current emperor escape the factions that kept him a puppet and actually better the nation, instead he chose to enthrone a new one whose power he governs with. They’re both the same, the only difference is we see how Wei Yan started with not evil intentions and was eventually corrupted by power but we do not see if the same will happen to Xie Zheng as well.
And my favorite part of the show at some point was Deng Kai and Kong Xue’er aka Qi Min and Yu Qianqian. They were so toxic oh my god, I loved that she saw him to his death and then rose to the highest position in the realm. I’ve seen some theories that Qi Min was nerfed with his obsession for her and that was why he failed, and while I agree that he truly suffered and was the one supposed to ascend to the throne, he was too mad to ever rule successfully, Qianqian or not. As we were shown in the what could have been segment, with his parents alive, he might’ve been a good ruler, but the Qi Min that went through the burning of the east palace and the loveless youth of the Lord Changxin’s house was too fractured to govern or care about people successfully. Even his love/obsession with Qianqian was a burning thing that threatened to consume not just her but him too in the flames, he would’ve left nothing but ashes in the wake of his rule, so yes, I’m very happy he died and that she finally escaped his cage. That said though, they had delicious chemistry together and I would love to see them as a pair in another work.
Honestly, apart from the ending–which seems to be the case with many cdramas these days, they start high and then just don’t know how to stick the landing—I don’t have much problem with this one, it was very enjoyable in the beginning and TXW and ZLH did a good enough job.
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Very Gloriously Mid
Somehow i forgot to write a review for one of my favorite dramasa of the year.I hope this is the return of Gulnezer on my screen, I’ve missed her.
Honestly this started so good but then kinda crashed and burned. Rong Shan Bao was such a girl boss, she was leagues ahead of her sisters/cousins and ten steps ahead of everyone else, there's nothing she has not thought of or anticipated. But her family was so annoying, especially the hard headed grandmother and her whiny sister.
The grandmother reminds me of the Abuela in Encanto but at least that one learned her lesson in the end, this stubborn old hag just refused to see reason no matter what. She was the reason for all the conflicts in the family.
I also liked Hou Minghao as Lu Jiang Lai, his character was very intriguing.
I just wished this ended better.
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This review may contain spoilers
Very enjoyable if you manage to turn your brain off for most of it.
I don’t really have much to say or complain about this drama to be honest, it did its job as an okay idol drama. As long as you’re not looking too much into the plot or storyline it’s pretty enjoyable.
The most enjoyable part for me definitely has to be the male lead. This is my first He Yu drama (I’m not counting the two episodes of the mess I watched him and Esther Yu in) and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised, he was the perfect Xiao Huayong, shameless, brazen, loving and completely incorrigible, I loved every minute of it, and his acting was also pretty good. Overall, there’s not much to say about his character; a sickly presenting crown prince who is not actually what he appears to be, the trope has been done since time immemorial, nothing to write home about. But maybe because I’ve been watching mostly serious shows, I found it quite refreshing, he reminded me very much of Zhangsun Wuji in Legend of Fuyao actually. A lot of people found it tiring and pathetic how his entire character was reduced to chasing after the female lead, and I get that it could be tiring to watch after the first 20 episodes and the couple has still gotten nowhere, but his character in the first place was of a dying prince, the only thing he cared about was finding the person that poisoned him, and then all of a sudden he fell in love with this woman and she became his sole motivation to live, its understandable. What is NOT understandable however is the first episode where he sees this woman that drowned and then he proceeds to give this total stranger the medicine that will save his life for like no reason?? whatsoever??
The leads had pretty solid chemistry though, and they’re both very good looking people that look good together, which is why all the cinematographic shots were just of them serving looks.
Apart from that the other thing I liked is that this drama knew that its strong points were not in the writing, so any scenes of political maneuvering or scheming were gotten quickly out of the way, they made it a said and done thing. It became kind of a game to me at some point, how quickly will they resolve this political dilemma? The answer is 15 minutes at the most. In the first episodes there was this ledger that contained a list of all the corrupt officials and their crimes, you know, the kind of thing that if it comes out will shake the verry foundation of the Court and will cause an upheaval, we literally see nothing of it. Who committed what and what were their punishments? Who knows and who cares, definitely not the writers. I think it’s actually much better that they went this route, rather than give us very shit writing filled with so many plotholes it basically becomes a sieve.
Third point in the favor of this drama is the second lead couple, I so enjoyed their story and relationship, the actress for Bu Shulin especially did a pretty good job. It’s the first time I’ve seen her and her disguise and acting of a man was very good. The premise of a lady disguised as a man and being able to navigate living alone in the capital since childhood as the sole heir of a marquis could’ve been a very compelling storyline, I’ll explain in my third negative point.
As for the not so good part of things, number one; Meng Ziyi and her character. Yes, Shen Xihe was supposed to be this aloof, cold, goddess like character, but MZY acted her like a doll, always the perfect makeup and accessories on, but no expression, she could not convey her emotions through the screen for anyone to even understand. The scene in the last battle, where Huayong had a moment with the emperor before dying was very sad, and the two actors did a good job conveying that, then it cuts to him actually dying in her arms, and you have this woman who has lived through two lives, lost her entire family in the first and now the love of her life in the second, this strong woman that has never shown weakness or vulnerability in both lives finally breaks down and everything comes pouring out. You would expect ugly heaving sobs and a heartbreaking scene, but MZY made it so underwhelming I just fast
forwarded. And Shen Xihe has so much plot armor I wonder how she hasn’t suffocated from the thickness of it, she can basically step on any toes—consort, princess, prince, duke, duchess—it doesn’t matter, she’s going to get away with it. All the princes also love her for no reason, like they all fell head over heels for this one girl minutes after meeting her, crazy things. Somehow her personality also switched overnight and none of the people close to her found it weird or alarming? This sweet, kind girl became ruthless and cold in the blink of an eye and even just develops skills and knowledge she never had and no one thought to even question it, they just carried on the way SXH carried on when she was reincarnated, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
When I said the drama knew its weaknesses were in plot writing, they did not realize that their strengths also did not lie with character writing. I don’t even want to get into the insufferable unbearable annoyance that was that obsessive pest, Prince Xin. I’ve not encountered such an annoying character that forced me to skip their scenes in a while, I loathe him. But all other female characters are somehow there to prop up SXH, even the second fl. They were all one track minded and had no other thing going on besides being jealous of her and trying to take her down. It is lazy writing and actually lowkey misogynistic writing. BSL was smart enough to navigate the scheming capital as a girl in disguise since she was a child but she was not smart enough that she was caught by SXH, she was not smart enough to get a body double in all those years, SXH had to do it for her. The sister, Gu Qingshu is basically just jealous girl 101, she had no quarrel with SXH but she repeatedly tried to get in her way why? Because she was written as the typical jealous antagonist with no other goal. The Noble Consort that should be fighting with other consorts is instead in competition with her stepson’s wife, not even the stepson that would inherit the throne she wants her son to inherit, instead it’s the wife she’s jealous of. If they’re not jealous of her they have to have been given their power by her (like the foreign consort) or some sort of agency (like her half sister she gave permission not to marry), its all very annoying.
All of a sudden, the second couple vanished in episode 26 and there was no more mention of them until SXH needed her avengers to assemble. I actually hated how they just made BSL’s character pregnant all of a sudden. She had worked her entire life to hold onto her position as heir and then they just have her sleep with a man and go off to have his babies, very stupid trope, its 2026 ffs. Then she comes back as BSL’s twin sister when it has been repeatedly emphasized that she’s the only child and heir so how did she/he now gain a twin sister? I find it a grave injustice that was done to her character because she was very firm on doing her duty, even breaking up with the vice minister because things were starting to get serious and she could not afford that.
Overall like I said in the beginning, quite enjoyable if you don’t take it too seriously. Oh and they really could have just scrapped that suddenly back to life thing and just left XHY dead.
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This review may contain spoilers
Ahh this could've been a solid 5 stars if it didn't fall apart towards the end.
It was a very new (to me) plot and genre, and for the most part vastly engaging, the good vs evil, hunters vs fiends part definitely could've been more fleshed out.Dilraba, Chen Xingxu and Zhang Li all did really good jobs, especially the two leads. Dilraba and Chen Xingxu have to work together again, this can't be the last time we see their incredible chemistry and sexual tension.
As for the characters, the leads have the most fleshed out personas, we see their reason and motivation for everything and we are led to understand them as people and their various relationships with the rest of the cast (i would've liked it a bit if Yan Tou's crisis was shown was he found out about Lin Xirou, I mean the emotional turmoil would've been incredible to witness and I'm sure CXX would've done the scenes justice).
Aside from them Zhang Li's Lin Xirou was charismatic, eerie and hauntingly beautiful, she completely embodied that haughty, rich chairwoman vibe, but any closer look would show you that there is something... other about her.
The cinematography is insanely beautiful, it was just cinema every shot, I mean if you had Reba and CXX and managed to fumble their combined face cards then let's revoke your directing license.
Now, for the rest of the cast and the things I didn't like so much:
The Nanshan Hunters:
Oh my god, how can an organization that has been around for hundreds if not a thousand years be so disorganized and underprepaired? They don't even give you the feel of a group of people that are competent, their weapons are at least several centuries old, they don't have good documentation of anything, nor good structural hierarchy, and no one fucking knows anything! Like there should've been a plan in place already in case something happened to Jiang Baichuan and the rest of the elders, then something did happen and they descended into chaos. Xing Shen, the leader that JBC chose is so closed off and complicated and only does things his own way that there is no way for any of the other hunters to know what he is planning let alone have an input in it. Its no wonder 97% of them died at the final battle.
And on the topic of Xing Shen, god he is so fucking annoying, I get he didn't trust Yan Tou but he made him suspicious and caused him so much suffering at the hands of the Fiends. And there was no need for him to die like??? Just to take out Xiong Hei?? His "sacrificial" death had zero build up and zero impact and was ultimately useless.
The Earth Fiends:
I really wish we saw more about how they were able to transform (revert?) to human forms. Aside from Lin Xirou and her eerieness, we got to see at least Feng Mi and the sick one actually act like humans. Feng Mi was so interesting, because as the Fiend that knew Yan Tou the least, she had the most compassion for him and truly seemed to understand human emotional complexity, that Yan Tou could not just simply forgive them and even felt sorry for him, i hated that she died while protecting him too (especially considering how useless he was in that fight).
The other Fiend I liked the characterization of was the sickly one that did not want to live any longer. As for Xiong Hei, everything Yan Tou said was right, he only wore a human skin and did not understand at all what it meant to be human, he was still underneath that skin a monster that resorted to violence at the turn of an eye.
LXR and Yan Tou's relationship was so bittersweet, on the one hand here's the woman that raised you from childhood, gave you everything and spoiled you endlessly, but on the other, she is also the woman who ruined your family's life, killed your parents and sister, stole your mother's identity and your father's company, and also has emotionally abused your other sister (Lin Ling) and aggressively controlled her entire life.
I do believe though that she did have maternal feelings toward him after all those years, and no its not because he was of no use to her—he was, he was heir to RoadSound Group and the face of the company's activities in the light, the ones she couldn't handle considering her non aging— there was something she said when everything was already exposed, that he was the only thing that allowed her to pretend to be human, "But Xiao Tou, without you, Aunt Lin has also lost her home." She wore the skin of a human but it was this foster son that allowed her to truly feel like one.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day she could not understand how he couldn't set aside all her crimes against his family and still keep being her doting son, even calling him ungrateful, which... ma'am you raised him with his parents money 😭? Which brings me to the conclusion that the Fiends really could not be left unchecked no matter how she kept saying that she did not want to be enemies with the Hunters. They needed blood bags, which meant constantly killing off generations of a family since they didn't age, and also what if others became carnivorous and went rogue like the first one? Its all a very black and white thing and yet not really.
The Final Battle/ Episodes:
My biggest gripe with the show so far, there was so much buildup only for it to fall woefully short. The Nanshan Hunters are most useless, we know that. They were going to die, we also know that, but damn were they complete shit. The Mad Blade pill and its consequence being madness would've been acceptable, what the fuck is the cliche last minute amnesia. Also how did NJL forget to kill Fiends and got injured instead, and Yan Tou was just walking around uselessly with that tranquilizer gun he did nothing with. It made no sense to have LXR killed by NJL's mother and not NJL herself or YT (poetic justice).
Also NJL and Yu Rong were both holding their own very well against XH and the other guy at the shop so how come five of them now couldn't take them down and three had to die to do it this time?
Anyway if i keep nitpicking we'll be here all day, there's plenty of things to enjoy and plenty not to so just give it a try to see if its to your liking.
And shoutout to our resident lesbian couple, Yu Rong and Quecha, the only acceptable thing to come out of the Nanshan Hunters.
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