Very very good drama
Awesome cast, very good acting. The story wraps up beautifully, no lose ends. Everyone gets their own ending. But be warn of tear jerkers episodes. Definitely a must watch for cdrama lover. Chen Kun is a very good actor and NiNi was not bad either. I think all the casts were awesome. 70 episodes was a breeze to me. But to enjoy the drama fully, my advice is to pace yourself. This drama is not suitable for binge watching as it is quite heavy. And how can you appreciate the beautiful scenery, casts and story if you skips some part of the drama.Was this review helpful to you?
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If you want a straight forward romance with easy to understand uncomplicated leads, this is not the show for you. As happens in real life the leads were flawed humans who have motivations that sometimes conflicts with one another and who don't always understand their own feelings as soon as the audience does. This is not a smooth tale. People are not perfect. I adored this show. It was gorgeous... sets, costumes, hair... all better than any other Chinese or Korean "historical" I've seen. Just absolutely stunning to watch. Chen Kun was brilliant, he was often "hammy" because his character is acting throughout big sections of the drama. He's not a man who shares his true self easily. NiNi was a perfect foil for him.
There was minimal dubbing in the drama which makes a massive difference to me. Voices had volume levels, whispers were actually whispers and not absurd stage "whispers". Children sounded like children. Women didn't sound like five year olds on a helium binge. I cannot for the life of me understand why dubbing is a thing anywhere outside of necessary production 'fixes' and if you're going to insist on dubbing so much why can't you do it in a reasonable natural manner? Ugh, anyway... minimal dubbing thank goodness.
I seriously wish there were more dramas of this caliber.
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Story: timeless and ever told saga of power for the BIG chair - no man, woman or child or LOVE will hinder that drive. Costuming & scenes were amazing and vivid.
Actors: the main leads had sizzling chemistry (wishing for a fulfillment) with all the actors cast perfectly for their roles - each and everyone. The emperor was one of my most favorite characters. Love mature actors!
Music: fit the mood and time and not overbearing.
Summary: was this perfect drama? No, it sagged in some spots, technically jumpy, storytelling seemed overly convoluted - confusing at times. YET, the main actor -KC introduction into the drama portrayed a deeply complex and tormented man in search. Thus I was hooked. This is a long drama, and well worth the time . "With smart people, you must be strategic." This drama was one heck of a go - chess game.
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Palace-drama done right, beautiful and well acted
First of all, this drama looks amazing. The sets, the costumes and the acting are awesome. There is no evil psycho-jealous-type character in 70 episodes and that is really rare for a palace-drama which has quite a focus on romance. This drama will have a special place in my heart because it jump-started my interest in Chinese dramas.Story
It starts phenomenal as the storyline gets unravelled and you get sucked into the story. The characters are very interesting, especially the 6th prince Ning Yi. The scheming and the intrigues in the palace are very entertaining because of Ning Yi who adjusts to the situation at hand and controls how people see him and the emperor who is not an idiot (which is very rare in my opinion lol).
The ending was not bad, but I guess after all the episodes I just started to expect way too much.
Acting/Cast
The cast did an amazing job, especially Chen Kun as Ning Yi (6th prince) and Ni Da Hong as Ning Shi Zhen (emperor). I loved their interactions with each other the most. The rest of the cast also did an amazing job, but these 2 just stood out for me.
Music
I personally don’t pay much attention to music/OST so I can’t really judge but I certainly can’t complain about it.
Rewatch Value
I don’t really rewatch dramas. But looking at 70 episodes à 45 min, the drama being an eye candy and the amazing acting, I guess it’s worth a rewatch because you will probably miss a few things and you get to enjoy a fantastic show.
Overall
This drama has sweet and mature romance, cross-dressing, hidden identity, revenge plot, power struggle and palace/political intrigue. For me its basically a palace drama done right without the annoying psycho-jealous-evil-mastermind-character and the female-lead character being thrown into the cold-palace/hard-labour-department because of a misunderstanding.
I would suggest to at least watch the first few episodes to get a feeling for the drama and of course to be amazed by the costumes and the acting.
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Great Acting, Great Politics!
Highly recommended series for those looking for great acting and politics scheme. Not as dry as Three kingdom series, there's still "love" story in this series. There's some flaws, especially on the last 10 episode, like rushing to end the series.When Ning Qi want to take the throne, there's a lot of chance for him to just kill everyone, why everyone just stand there and wait for the opponent to talk and walk? it just doesn't make sense.
I love how all of them having those poker face, especially Ning Yi who can act pitiful while actually he's pretending, it's just hilarious seeing he act dumb and crying while actually he is scheming behind. Their poker face always amaze me
I don't really like Feng Zhi Wei character. This Zhi Wei character, she's just busy body "smart" but not that "smart" lady who just can't make up her mind. If she can just decide to stay with Ning Yi, not giving hope here and there so other guy swaying plus not busy body want to save princess shao ning, want to know why people in the academy so skillfull, etc, all the troubles will not be there. Too emotional for that so call "smart" title. But only blinded by emotion for the mother and people that she barely know, like her brother who just show up. She just can forget all the things Ning Yi has done for her, while actually all the troubles are she bring into herself.
And I wonder why there's so many men want to protect her haha...
Overall the series is good, supported with very good acting from all the actor and actress.
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The Best Drama Ever!
This is my #1 favorite Drama! Yes it is lengthy but it is so very good! Ni Ni and Aloys Chen (Chen Kun) instantly became my favorite actress and actor. Believe it or not I have watched this more than once. Tiny spoiler alert.........I'm telling you now if you are a must have a happy ending kinda person, this is not for you. If you like omg what the heck just happened kind of endings this one is definitely the one! This entire series had me on my toes. I literally lost hours and hours of sleep. I even went to work a couple of times with no sleep at all. I have never done that before or since. The entire cast were phenomenal! The writers, producers, designers, make up artists, camera and set crew, the entire team did an amazing job with this one. I'm sure I will watch it several more times. There are only two other Dramas that I have watched more than once and now this is the 3rd. <3Was this review helpful to you?
this is a story about abstraction
tiansheng is a country, but its name is repeated so often that it becomes more of a symbol, and then nothing at all. and so does dacheng, bloody pagoda, the title of emperor, the fight for the throne. it’s a 70 episode long journey with the sole purpose of telling us that every step we watch our characters take is meaningless.as a result you kind of feel the length once the show touches the 55 mark, and various characters who played fairly significant roles get little more than 4 seconds for their death scene and then forgotten shortly after. otherwise i feel like it’s really self-aware? there’s plotholes and details overlooked but the overall story doesn’t get lost. it’s stunningly consistent in tone, in its writing, in its cinematography.
the best part of this production is, in my opinion, feng zhiwei. every character is doomed to a sort of inevitable and cyclical doom, and she’s not any exception, but there are parts of her character arc where she is instead a source of clarity. she knows how everything will end, and she wants no part. she is so surprising and complex…i don’t think we’ll have another feng zhiwei for a long time. anyway yes! it was a worthwhile watch but for certain things more than others.
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a Masterpiece of beauty and elegance
I score 8 on Story just because it doesn't end the way I wanted, which is how the majority of C-dramas ends: there is this willingness to sacrifice ( either something important to you or your own life!)- after watching nearly hundreds of C-dramas, i get it, Chinese audience seems to love the drama/sad ending- I normally read how a c-drama ends to avoid disappointment, and i knew i wouldn't have like the rise of phoenixes's end, so I fast forwarded the last few episodes just because i wanted to finish it.regardless of this, I would definitely recommend it to everybody, especially to c-dramas beginners because it was my first c-drama , the first that got me hooked to the point that since then i have been watching c-dramas only, paying for Asian streaming channels/app, and only watching costume/historical c-dramas....!!
i have appreciated the beauty of costumes, the elegance of body movements, the slow scenes, the subtle romance going on between the 2 main leads, the fact that for once the wigs worn by the actors didn't look ridiculous nor fake ( a weakness in historical/costume c-dramas!!) . c-dramas are known to have hell lot of episodes; with its 70 episodes, this drama didn't make an exception to this trend; but at any point, it never get boring or too slow but , the many episodes were simply taking you deep down into the character development.... you get very deep into the story, you understand it better, and you don't want it to finish.... but then of course the finale might, to some viewer, leave you unsatisfied and wanting for more...
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The series, drama, plots and subplots are outstanding up to episode 50. Afterwards it goes down hill down to the apparent suicide of the main character which is completely off character for being the Ultimate Scholar she would have come up with a plan like the one I have read about in the novels translation. The series is worth watching by the settings and clothing alone but is quite weird that Ning Yi's obsession with silk is downplayed as well as the quality of their plans at some point as well as most characters by the end it feels extremely rushed or PowerPoint Dune feeling like. The chemistry between the characters is great and there is more romance in there than in any Hollywood Romance flicks which makes the ending inconsistent.
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After 3 tries..it definitely won me over
The ending is the best possible one there could have been. Anything else would have been a fantasy and lala land. As long as this drama was, there was never a dull moment, every scene meant some thing, every character was significant...which I adored. Perhaps this could have been different had "communication" been a legit thing, but it seems in this era...it was all half messages and truths and expectations.All said, it took me 3 times to really settle down and say, yes let me knock this out....it's only 70 episodes, but it was really worth it.
Flaws were not a result of anyone's acting, which was astounding (although the whole voice change and need to whisper in the most unnecessary amounts was slightly annoying). Flaws were due to the characters themselves and well, that drove the story. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who can deep dive into a hard core historical drama ..it's gets better and better.
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