Reviews

Did this series have to be this good?

I just want to make it brief; I don't need to write a long story. The point is, the series has good characters and truly bad characters and at this point the villian always be villian and the hero always be the hero. . The writer and director did a fantastic job. The cast was top-notch. Even the musical tone perfectly matches the drama's situations. It's one of the best historical productions in Chinese history actually not only historical but also one of the best productions in all genres in the Chinese drama. I highly recommend watching it, and I think it would be a huge loss in your life if you didn't. Thank you. (Please don't think this is a simple opinion. This isn't the first time I've watched a C-drama, and certainly not the first historical
C-drama. I'm just writing my own simple thoughts instead of a long, professional review. Thank you.)

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Romantic Warrior Couple

I love this pairing, Chu Yu loves fearlessly and Wei Yun loves fiercely, both embodying the English title of the show Fight for Love. All Chu Yu wanted in a romantic partner is someone who will fight through life's obstacles beside her and she them, and she got it in spades finally after her first try didn't work out. Both characters both can get serious and have their playful sides. They are a delight every time they are on screen together. They are on equal footing with her also being a comrade in arms and an extremely capable General having fought and learned alongside her general father since she was a child. She's also smart and fun. He's also all those things, it's fantastic. It's always great to see romantic partners that are not only take care of each other equally, but equal in power dynamics for either hetero or queer romances. One of the things I appreciate is that Chu Yu is older than Wei Yun and looks every bit the gorgeous grown woman warrior that she is, while Wei Yun is younger and has a baby face though Ryan the actor is 30 and Wei Yun is just 3 years younger than Chu Yu. Both the characters are able to be cute and funny without being annoyingly cutesy and also have gravitas when the situation requires it. I love that once she decides to date him, they aren't stingy with the displays of affection. The kisses are actually romantic, particularly when she kisses him and he kisses back even more passionately, opening his eyes mid way just to look at her, and they continue kissing. The show is however stingy without giving them one last kiss scene as they overlook the peaceful scenery of their homeland that they fought and won together.

All the women characters get to get their agency in various ways and it's wonderful. Chu Yu's ex boyfriend Chu Sheng really fumbled again and again. She's truly the coolest girlfriend in the world, not caring about conventions, protected and helped him achieve his goals, only for him to ditch her for his own plans, but still wants her to be with him. His ex-wife also genuinely loved him and he couldn't even be nice to her, though her dad did threaten his life in order to marry her, but Chu Sheng also got a political boost that he wanted out of it. Good for her to divorce him. At least Chu Sheng becomes a helpful political ally for Chu Yu later. It's poetic justice for Chu Yu that her signature romantic gestures in order to secretly scheme with the Wei family's eldest brother happened on the same day as Chu Sheng's marriage that led to her catching the attention of Wei family's youngest son. Technically Wei Jun also fell for her, because who wouldn't swoon at a gorgeous lady declaring their love for them in such an artistically spectacular way even if he later found out it was to plan with him about solving a problem that affected both their families. That probably made him fall harder. He died on the battlefield, but at least he got to be grieved and his family taken care of by Chu Yu as his widow in the time that his family needed the most.

Chu Yu saved Wei Yun from being scapegoated to death and even empowered his military standing as the head of Wei family. It was great seeing him fall deeper for her as she takes action to save him and take care of his family even while he's so suspicious of her before finally finding his brother's letter. It's even better when he completely loves her and his eyes are always so soft and vulnerable around her. While he serves his 3 years of border patrol duty, she becomes an official general of Beifang when the crown prince takes over as King and doesn't have the same constrictive views of his father before him keeping Chu Yu down in order to boost Wei Yun, and also opens up the opportunities for women to become Officials as well. It's beautiful that she does a proposal dance at the city gates as Wei Yun returns, the same dance that captured his heart and she full on proposes to him, "I'm here to marry you, will you marry me?" And he accepts saying "I will." with teary eyes. His dream has come true for her to proposal dance to him. I also love how it's recounted verbally to Chu Sheng by his helper, that the General of Beifang is dancing upon the gate tower for Duke Wei, so the road to the palace is blocked. The guys got to hang out a lot and there were two instances where one of the guys went into full drag. ShiLan pretending to be his sister makes sense, but Liu Qiba going full drag for the fake wedding didn't make any sense other than he just wanted to for fun, which good for him. It would have been nice if there were more scenes when all of Chu and Song women were together. That one scene of them commiserating on the roof showed that they had great friendship chemistry together as well.

The other standout woman and her twisted romantic pairing is of course the Eldest Princess who should have been King, ChangMing. She loves her country deeply and survived an abusive political marriage in order to secure the throne for her brother. She has a harem and even keeps some porn in her library that was hilariously found by Chu Yu's sister Chu JIn who tagged along to investigate what happened to ChangMing who gets kidnapped by her favorite harem guy HanMei who turns out to be both a mole, but also the royal lineage of the enemy country who becomes king Zhao Yue and wants her to be his queen. She tries to kill both him and herself, but failing that, she decides to do what she does best and destroy the enemy from within. Despite him being her favorite, she never slept with him, but she seduces him as a step to sow discord in his alliance marriage with a lord's daughter. She becomes pregnant to her own surprise. Symbolically, it might have been because the pregnancy was a product of true love, as she really did love HanMei and he loved her. Sadly, the pregnancy did come at the worst time for her and she can only tell the little soul to find her in the next life as she takes abortion medicine in order to frame the other consort and HanMei makes an enemy of that consort's family. She implies the same thing when she gives poisoned kiss to HanMei who asked her if she ever loved him at the edge of a cliff, telling him that they shouldn't be born as royals in the next life. She also dies of the same poison, but willingly hurls herself off a cliff after pushing him off despite Chu Yu offering her an antidote, declaring she will clear the other half of the blame for HanMei. I hope the family of three finds happiness in another story. Truly a fantastic role for Joe Chen, it would be great to see her in a modern drama romance with Liang Xue Feng.

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Me and Thee: comedy mafia romance

Episode 1:
The characters are interesting so far, there are currently many mafia BLs out there after KinnPorsche and I have had trouble getting into them due to low budget, repetitive stories etc... This one is actually pretty good, it balances comedy well with seriousness. The comedy is not too OTT silly and did make me laugh a few times. So far this is not a toxic story as 'Thee' is listening to 'Peach' and taking on his advice although he is used to getting what he wants and is repeatedly visiting Peach unannounced.

The show gets sweeter each episode and Thee tries to understand Peaches life and help him out with some issues he's going through, its quite a light hearted series with some lovely moments.

PondPhuwin seem to have matured their acting skills for this and make a great pair (I've been watching them since fish upon the sky). Est as Mok was a great casting choice as he really fits the role as mafia bodyguard.

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My roommate is a gumiho

Spoilers - I am not sure if there will be, maybe some little ones, but still I put a warning.
It is one of the dramas which are a proof that something can be really good but it needs a right time to watch.
When it came out I thought that it was too childish/stupid? (from tiktok videos) and at the same time Doom at your service was released (which I love!) and for what I should have watch two shows with the same vibe? And do not get me wrong they are pretty similar. There are many similar thropes - white truck, forgetting, breaking up, non human-human love. But Days is more mature, dark and sad while this one (sorry, mrig does not look good as a short title version) is more comedy, light and goofy. Both have sad and happy/comedy moments but Doom is like a night while Gumiho like a day. Maybe you will understand what I mean.
Also I was not really a fun of Lee Hyeri (until I watched her in Friendly rivarly). Actually the same thing with Jang Ki Yong (until The atypical family). And as far as I love actors more in these mentioned dramas, they did here really great. Acting was good and chemistry was nice - and I really like them as a couple. In LHR' case she could easily end up with Bae In Hyuk and in my opinion it still would be good. One more thing with tiktok and this drama - people potrayed BIH's characters as total as*hole - do not get me wrong, going out because of the bet is bad but he pretty soon called it off and felt really bad about it, so I think people should let him leave, in the end he was not a bad guy. While in JKY's case I felt like we moved on too soon from the fact that he actually "cheated".
Second couple was really cute, I loved them. I also liked idea of Choi Woo Sung and Kim Do Yeon being as a couple (siblings of LHR and BIH)
Perfect cameos: Jung So Min ( was giving a little Aerith's vibe from Final Fantasy VII), Kang Mi Na and Oh Jungg Se.
Hmm what to say more - girls had many beautiful outfits, love that LHR was wearing skinny jeans (it looks good! not everything needs to be buggy).
One more thing - Lee Hyeri looked like Chaewom from Le sserafim in this hairstyle (and when she had ponytail a little as Yuqi from I-dle) and I could not unseen it.
Okay to sum up: really nice drama, funny (in a little silly way), cute, a little sad, perfect acting. If you like non-human and human romance then it is a must have (and if you love Doom at service as much as me you need to give it a chance, really "siblings" dramas).

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Well made, with some small flaws

Story

Throughout this series, I was never bored. The story is straightforward. The politics were simple enough so I was never confused, yet interesting so I didn't get bored. Everything made sense. I never felt like the politics were fillers; instead, they felt necessary, they felt like they were a result of the plot rather than the reason for it. There were no "sidequests".

Since the way the first episode was set up (Jinxiu being attacked), my feeling was that I was watching "the other country", because we are used to the good guys being on defense. This was really cool, I enjoyed the dynamic.

Characters

To be honest, I never felt much chemistry between the leads. However, their story is well-written, honest, not marked by misunderstandings. They keep their promises to each other, they stick together through thick and thin. I think it's exactly the kind of love story I want to see from a cdrama. There was a moment when the main characters could have split up "for the sake of each other", I am glad it didn't happen.

Fu Yi Xiao is a nice character. She is smart enough so she doesn't trust anyone blindly. She is decisive both in battles and in love. She was no snowflake. She can withstand torture and she doesn't blink in front of violence. There were many times she could have interfered to save evil characters or to ask for a judgement, yet she didn't, she watched them die.

Feng Sui Ge was a breath of fresh air between other MLs. He is someone that cares about the people around him, but he does not forgive those who betray him. He is serious, composed, but he is also not afraid of expressing his feelings. He does not negotiate with evil characters, he kills them without a second thought. For revenge, he will go miles, and he will punish everyone that tries to stop him. He stands up straight in front of the emperor, he defies orders, he does not submit and he fights for what he thinks it's right.

The Princess of Susha and Emperor of Jinxiu were an unexpected, yet absolutely stunning part of the plot. Such crazy, unhinged interactions between them. A desperate person wanting power and revenge, and a violent tyrant drowning in pleasures, yet never truly happy. They start to slowly find other sides of themselves, but it's late - their love story is tragic. I wished they had a happy ending, I wished I would see more of them. I know cdramas are a lot about justice, and that characters will always die for their past, but I hoped for an exception.

Critics:
- Too many moments when someone is seriously injured / wounded during fights, but then makes a full recovery within a day.
- A lot of last moment saving each other.
- Some of the side stories are not correctly wrapped up.

Overall, 9/10. It would have been a 10/10, but these small tropes and the small lack of chemistry I felt make it a 9/10.

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This Drama Made Me Laugh, Cry, and Now I’m Emotionally Arrested?❤️

I’m currently at Episode 4 and I’m honestly enjoying this drama so much. The storyline is easy to follow, the pacing is good, and every actor matches their character perfectly. The mix of sad, funny, mysterious, and heartwarming moments is just chef’s kiss.

Each character has their own charm — Zhiyao is hilarious but still caring, Jiang Yi Jie is handsome AND funny 🤣, Zhongwen is super adorable, and Zhang Long Ji… he actually looks like a “good” inmate and I really like his character. He’s handsome, gentle, and has that gentleman vibe hahaha. But I’m still unsure if he’s truly good or hiding something (jeng jeng jeng).

The chemistry between Zhiyao and Yi Jie is pure love–hate chaos and I love every second of it 🤣.
Four episodes in, I’ve cried, laughed, cried again, then laughed again — a full emotional roller coaster.

I seriously can’t wait for the next episode… the waiting is stressing me out 😭.
Totally worth watching!

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I came here for LYN and left with more than I bargained for

I can't rave enough about HOW GOOD this drama is. You want something that will make you laugh, cry and scream? This is it. It is both heartwrenching and heart warming. I hardly hold dramas this high in my ranking but this was just THAT amazing.

Honestly, this drama was not at all anything I expected it to be. I truly had no or super low expectations for this BUT this drama just blew me away.

I initially felt like this drama was a little slow. I was pretty close to dropping it about 12 episodes or so in but I'm glad I didn't. I initially didn't understand Shi Yuan (the cousin's) purpose in all this but I let some parts of it slide because I knew it would come back eventually. Even throughout I felt like they could have hurried it up with some montages and some scenes where a character was mourning over a very unimportant character. Definitely felt like they were trying to drag parts out.

Okay let's start with the male lead, my beloved Liu Yuning. The main and biggest reason for my starting this drama was for this man. I love him to bits so I knew I had to watch this. His acting is just chef's kiss at this point. He's perfected the subtleties of his expressions and because this drama was not redubbed, his voice and his range was amazing. It was so genuine when he stumbled on his words or when the pitch of his voice changed. I think it added so much depth to this character.

I definitely was questioning his character at first. How twisted can one's morals be after having their whole family betrayed and then slayed? I truly loved that he was very very morally grey especially when he cut off that guy's body parts into bits. I think that perfectly painted an extremely good image of the kind of person Wei Shao is. This wasn't some half assed revenge story, this guy was committed and he was cruel. I like 😏

But I didn't like it when he almost low key strangled our FL but I was like NO MUST NOT GIVE UP ON THIS DRAMA.

I also was iffy about Song Zuer and how well she might fit this role and fit LYN since she's much younger than him. BUT DAMN! She was PERFECT! I think I'm tired of seeing "strong FL" where you hand them a sword and tell them swing it around and then call them strong but they're just seriously overbearing. I loved that she showed strength appropriate for women of that time. She was strategic and smart, cunning and calculative in order to achieve the things she needed to ensure her safety, her husband's and her clans. Song Zuer mastered that strength perfectly balanced with her adorableness. She's one of those actresses where I find myself going "GAH SHE'S SO CUTE!" every few minutes.

OKAY AND THEN THE CHEMISTRY 🔥🔥🔥 WOW JUST WOW I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN. THESE PEOPLE KISS LIKE HOT KISS FOR REAL KISS. This ain't some half ass lip touching, this was like for realz for realz. And some scenes were just almost low-key too raunchy for C-drama BUT DAMN! THEY WERE SO COMFORTABLE WITH EACH OTHER AND THEY ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE THEY LIKED EACH OTHER. LYN always has great chemistry with his FLs BUT THIS TOPS EVERYTHING.

LYN and SZE really owe it to them already knowing each other well enough that it lent itself perfectly to their onscreen chem. I love how much she roasts him (lines with which LYN come up with himself 😂). They played the soft hubby whipped for his tiny wife so well. I love that scene where she's mad at him and he's basically begging her not to be mad and she just turns to him and then she smiles and then they start laughing. I think that's so genuine and something you don't see in Chinese dramas. The director gave them so much creative freedom in this drama to come up with scenes themselves and I think that's what made this drama so perfect.

After finishing this drama, I went back and watched it AGAIN. That was how good it was. Look, if you don't watch this, you're missing out on something life changing.

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“Fate can be changed.”

“There is no pain you can’t overcome and despair you can’t endure. What's most beautiful always lies ahead.”
This drama wonderfully and realistically represented the issue at hand. It showed everything a victim and the related could experience and how we as a society make such occurrences more prevalent. It also explored how two sentences a stranger writes on the internet can seriously affect the ppl involved, which many of us seem to forget.
Each character was believable in their own way, their actions understandable even if u completely disagree with them. Kudos to the whole cast and crew who did a spectacular job portraying these flawed characters that are honestly part of our everyday society.

Now, if I had to pick one aspect of this beautifully woven story that enchanted me, it would be the character, Qin Nan.
“Do you think Qin Nan loves Ye Sibei? If you think so, it would be difficult for you to understand Qin Nan's actions. It is not just love.
Qin Nan sees Ye Sibei as a faith, almost like a religion.”
my goodness, I can’t 😭😭 QIN NAN THE MAN YOU ARE 🤌
What he had for her is inexplicable and unfathomable. It is beyond love, it is devotion. He was such a big support for Sibei all throughout. He would do anything for her and he showed it with his actions. He made me wonder, can one really love so deeply?
That letter he wrote to her was so beautiful, so bittersweet, I had to pause to cry for a moment.
I don’t know much abt acting, but somehow Vin Zhang made me FEEL for his character. I was intrigued, I empathized, I felt his emotions and he didn’t even need to say a word.
I don’t think i can shut up abt Qin Nan for a while. MLs like this do be raising our standards and i need to yap a lil less

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I may have cussed out Ouyang's entire family tree

Fuck this. I just wrote a whole review only for my stupid self to delete it.

I'm just going to sum up what my long review was GOING to say.

-I cried a TON at the SA parts
When she was shoving her nail into the butterfly tattoo, I didn't really understand what it meant until it hit me that the butterfly would still have its wings but never be the same again. Even if the pain subsided, the damage would still remain.
What hurt me the most was probably how accurate the depiction of the assault was. When Hsiao Tung Chiang looked at the comments, everyone knew her family, background, friends, and so on. The idea that everyone knows what happened to you is just so frightening, and it would make everything ten times harder. It made me genuinely want to get in touch with those who had suffered from sexual assault, to truly help and understand their pain (if I even could). Additionally, watching that girl, who she came with, being forced to lie that her friend didn't call for help, really twisted me. It showed how those with power have so much control, and all you can really do in the end is absolutely nothing.

-BUT what was really the cherry on top was watching Jen Li Yao get beaten up by fucking gangsters while he knew his girlfriend (yes, she does fall into that category) was being sexually assaulted. It goes along with one big theme in this story, about how little we can do in the end. I have this speech, one that I wrote for speech and debate about firefighters, and at one point I say, "Have you ever been incapable of saving someone you loved?". I don't think I could find better words to describe how it looked like Jen Li Yao must have felt after seeing the person he cared about the most become an absolute shell of herself because he was unable to help her. I would like to think that if she hadn't gone with Ouyang, then maybe this whole event wouldn't have happened, yet in the end, I have to accept that it's a show, and I can't change anything.

- I would also like to take a moment to just appreciate how good the cinematography was (yes, I did have to look up this word). I didn't really take in how much the scenes make you feel like you're really there with them. It also helped that I was watching the show late at night, but the concept of rainy days did really fit the theme. Though Jen Li Yao and Hsiao Tung Chiang had sooo many moments that I was super jealous of. I really like the dark theme (physically and mentally), because it really added to the whole story. Also, THE CASTING? I mean, I would like to say that the casting for Jen Li Yao, Hsiao Tung Chiang, and Ouyang was amazing.

Jen Li Yao, played by Jing-Hua Tseng- he played the role so well, no one can convince me that someone could have done a better job than him. His face displayed every word he couldn't say, and his little-to-no-word demeanor fit him perfectly. He was definitely a main reason why some people started this show, and his acting was some of the best I've seen (just for this type of role, though)

Hsiao Tung Chiang, played by Moon Lee, I really like how every reaction she had conveyed so much emotion, the complete opposite of Jen Li Yao. She wasn't afraid to believe in what she wanted, and adding that dance aspect made everything just come together perfectly.

Ouyang, played by Chih-Tian Shih- this is honestly one I just thought of, but it fits so well. The way he was able to play a scared little kid in front of his parents and other adults, but was such a horrible and disgusting person, when they weren't around, absolutely shocked me. I had really good hopes for him in the beginning, but I have never felt this disgusted by a character. In the scene where his dad was beating him, I was like "maybe he's finally learning his mistakes and feeling like shit," but no, IT WAS ALL A MASK??? This dude through me off so hard. Great acting, so props to him.

There are honestly more characters I could rave about, but I'm going to cut it short. There is so much more I could talk about, but I just want to get this done with because it's 12:00 AM lol. It may seem like I'm overhyping this, and to some, I probably am, but I honestly fell in love with it. I'm usually a person who gets easily bored if the story isn't fast enough (warning, I did kind of skip through the first two episodes, BUT I wasn't watching them on a TV, which makes things better, in my opinion), but this show has a chokehold on me. I don't know when or how I realized this, but it somehow drew me in. I'm really excited for part 2 to come out, even if it's so far away. I will be finding out more about Jua Hua Tseng because he definitely pulled me in. Reminder to myself, hate the character, not the actor.

I think that's all lol. Don't mind the bad spelling, please

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Cute but could be better

I think this drama would be better if it had more episodes, so we could see more of the conflict, specially around de uncle. I mean, we could imagine it was easy to arrest the uncle and get all the truth because they're rich and have plenty of contacts, but it was way too easy! I know the manly focus was the couple and their fake marriage, but still, things went too smoothly.
So, if you need something that you don't need to think a lot to watch, you can watch this, but I think you can find better ones.
I liked the main couple chemistry, but the second couple was the winner for me! Even though they had little screentime, they were absolutely stunning to watch! I really hope they can do a drama together again as the main leads!
Also, I would love to see the CEO paying for everything he did and how he treated others, but maybe, more certainly, nothing happened to him because he is rich.
Anyways, I thought about give it an 8 but I felt it was too much so I gave it 7.5.

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Older aged romance done right

I was afraid to have too much expectations for this drama. First, it’s middle aged romance which is my cup of tea. The bigger plus is the male lead whom has been out of the limelight (Wallace Huo) and a charming woman (Zhu Zhu) whom I got to like the more I see her. To my delight, now that it has ended, I can say it is definitely worth the watch.

From the title and synopsis you might expect it to be an ordinary story of a single man and his quirky ways. It is! However, the writing and production is presented in a way that really made me think of the unique side of those who chooses to be single. The male character is accomplished in his career, multi talented in his many hobbies, so ideally in that perspective, he is in the comfort of his element. The writer in this storytelling presented his at such but with harmonious symbolism of how his subconscious may be missing something. I’ll leave it at that and let you find out.

The romance part is super slow built. However, the leads interactions are so sweet. There’s plenty of comedy to make you laugh and yes, in depth moments that gets you thinking. The side characters are there to keep the story with variations but the male lead is totally the eccentricity of this story.

Mind you it’s not perfect. I think towards the end they may have decided to trim it down so there’s disconnection in some parts. I wish they made it longer and had more depth in closing BUT, it’s hea. This drama engaged me from beginning to end.

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