The best thing by far about this drama is the characters. Nearly every single one will make you fall in love with them (and also probably make you cry at some point), which is no small feat because there are quite a few important characters in this considering how short the drama actually is. I was so in love with so many of the characters by the end of the drama that I felt a tiny bit robbed to not know how every single one of their stories played out.
Be READY to fall in love with Luo Fei Fei, Bei Tang Tang, Xie Yan Ran, Chu Shang Nan, and Bai Wu Chen (and probably quite a few others).
One of the things I loved most about the characters was that you get to see so many different and fun relationships develop between all the characters, it's not just the leads that you watch grow and fall in love. There are multiple love stories, wonderful friendships (the friendship between the leading lady and the second lead lady is AMAZING), and great family and imperial relationships.
The story itself was really interesting, not a concept I have ever encountered before and it develops in a really interesting way. Though time travel is a common concept in dramas, the zodiac element made this one different. There is a ton of romance and comedy, I laughed (and giggled) a lot, but there is so much else as well, the fantasy plays an important role in the drama which I haven't always seen in every drama so that was great.
The beginning of the drama was a little rough (there were some very awkward or cringe-y bits) and some of the actors took a few episodes to stop being stiff and start being likable (which, given that it's an idol drama, wasn't shocking) but the leading lady is so adorable, funny, and cute that you pull through and it's worth it for the way the drama develops as you really get into the meat of the story.
The things that stop this drama from being just fantastically fun and fluffy, aside from the rough beginning, are the ending, which left me wanting and left a pretty big question mark, and the incredibly annoying minute or two of EVERY SINGLE EPISODE where they were literally just advertising face masks and it was just shoehorned in SO badly. But skip through those and it's bearable.
Even though the ending left me more unsatisfied the more I dwell on it and the beginning was a little rough, the interesting story and the fantastic characters made me really enjoy this fun little drama. It's fluffy and fun and cute and it will make you smile (and probably cry sometimes too).
My overall rating is higher than my rating breakdown because it kept me so interested and so many of the characters stole my heart. It's not perfect, the ending especially, but overall this drama made me smile so much.
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The characters are easy to love. Each and everyone of them. They are officially my historical #squadgoal.
The plot is solid too (if you ignore the time travel chuchu). Keep in mind that this is rom-com but I love how they solved everything in a funny way. I was laughing out loud in some scenes because I know something funny will happen any moment.
The romance is not cringe-y for me but rather they look natural regardless of how raw they are as actors.
While this may be a low budget drama, it exceeded my expectations and I was very satisfied with the hours I spent watching these two seasons.
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This review may contain spoilers
Review counts for S1 + S2. This show is cheap, and not something you watch for depth or education or worth, it's something you watch when you're bored and out of options. The sets and costumes aren't the highest quality. I still don't remember everyone's names because they introduced all the characters one after another, nonstop, and barely used their names again. Most of the characters are also one dimensional, with the exception of Lord Chen and Yanran. They actually felt like real people with real interests, quirks, and turmoil. Really wish the drama was about them, and not about Emperor and FeiFei.
I felt absolutely no real chemistry between Emperor and FeiFei, and FeiFei is the worst female protag I've watched. She's selfish, greedy, and powerful when the plot needs her to be. She even uses someone's emotional trauma to trick them into agreeing with her wishes. I felt sick just watching that scene. I also couldn't contain my disbelief at seeing her as an intern doctor and not wear pants while on shift. "Modern girl traveling through time and acts as uncouth as possible to be completely unladylike which charms main love interest" is the cringiest trope in asian dramas.
I get that this show is mostly romcom, but the serious story falls flat the farther you watch, to the point where none of the conflicts actually matter in the end. Main villain has vague pursuit of power, and several "important" plot points are never explained and swept under the rug. The zodiac powers had potential to be interesting, but the lack of usage except in one comedic moment wasted them. ex. Lord Chen only has one vision, ever. Emperor uses his power ONCE to freeze some guards who thought he was an intruder. Speed guy doesn't use his super speed to run away from the villains. None of them use their powers in battles.
Speaking of battles, the editors sure had fun using every public domain sound effect they could find, including ones from old fighting games. I couldn't take any of the battles seriously as a result because there were cheap sword clanging noises and whoosh noises every single second, out of sync too.
Watch this if you want to laugh and cringe, don't expect anything serious.
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This review may contain spoilers
In my review for season one, I had said that I've seen a few dramas like this with the same general idea of time travel or someone coming from another world (being from past, future, or planet) and this drama was no different. It was light and goofy and had less of a story-line vs the first season which made me ultimately not love it. We start where we had left off except at the end of the first season, we have Emperor Tang drive his sword through Fei Fei who had been force fed Black Pearl which made her into one of the insane soldiers that The Zodiac Kingdom is trying to defeat, but because of having so much power from being the master of Ophiuchus, she was almost a "power bank" to give strength to their enemies. Given that information and thinking there was no second season, we assumed that Emperor Tang just murdered the love of his life (even though he basically banished her after finding out she was a Ophiuchus), but instead she somehow survived and was chained up in the dungeon. What got my upset about the beginning of this drama was how literally everyone was hesitant after the whole possession thing, understandably, but the one person who should have had faith in her and should have saved her, was the one who pushed away the most. He allowed everyone else to save her, while sneaking in to see if she was ok. I was honestly surprised how quickly she forgave him. And I feel like that is what this season was about. Yes there was the plot that they found out that the people of Orion, not Ophiuchus, were the ones that were behind the poisoning and possession of the Ophiuchus people as well as the reason for the late emperor's death. And everyone was trying to find evidence and stop them, but ultimately getting into more trouble. BUT that was all overshadowed by Fei Fei and Emperor Tang's cringy attempts of figuring out their relationship as well as all the other zodiac members wanting to find love as well. Which is fine, but it felt almost unnecessary with the ending we got. From season one, Virgo and Leo finally found some common ground and they ended up getting together before Fei Fei and Tang as well as advancing their relationship. They were cute, but I didn't understand why (spoiler) they made her pregnant because we were never going to see the birth of their baby given the time frame of when it happened and that insane climax and ending. I mean it is cute how far they both came to having a child together, but unnecessary. Then we have Cancer and Chen from season one - Chen being in love with Fei Fei, and continuing to be in love with her in this season, and Cancer being in love with Chen since childhood. I felt bad for Cancer as she was trying to get him to fall in love with her, but I enjoyed how they didn't force their relationship as I believe Chen loved Fei Fei, maybe even more than Emperor Tang. It wasn't until the climax when I thought it was a little forced, but still it wasn't like they kissed and realized they loved one another. I believe if they did end up making them fall in love, my rating would have gone down. I don't like forced relationships especially when it happens after a person was still in love with another. Like homie, that's a rebound. Cancer would have been the rebound. Third, we have Prince Tang aka Aquarius who had fallen in love with Orion's princess after she had tricked him and kidnapped him. He has such a good heart and believes that everyone deserves a second chance to be happy and I felt like this season revolved the most around him and Xia Bing (Bing Bing). I wasn't the biggest fan of her, but yeah I get it. She had loyalty to her people and family. In a way, she caused a lot of death in the final episodes and it hurt seeing the prince hurt. I think he had the WORST fate out of everyone in this drama which hurts a lot because he was and still is my favorite character. I think this season made me realize that I am leaning more towards dislike for the emperor, especially in that final fight scene where he sucked at fighting and didn't event try to survive to see his bride again. Finally, I think my favorite relationship, which wasn't even a real one, just an insinuated one towards the end of the drama was between Aries and Sagittarius. Sag was possessed most of the time in this drama and Aries wanted to know what love was like where I kind of felt that Gemini might have had a mentor student crush on him. It wasn't until the end when I got major vibes that Sag loved Aries and it was heartbreaking that they weren't able to explore it after the "Red Wedding."
I've seen this plot in many dramas which made me scared to watch another drama like this because I was scared of the ending. But I thought that because this drama was light and fun that the ending would be as well. But then after the whole Red Wedding scene...I got scared again. And I did appreciate the happy ending, but it didn't make sense to me.
Ending Spoiler - do not read if you want to watch the drama and don't want to know the ending
After her and her people saved everyone who had been killed including all zodiac members, Fei Fei and her people were drained of their power and started to disappear. There was a very emotional and intense scene that broke my heart as the Emperor shared one final kiss with his bride of only a few hours, while being encircled by all the zodiac members/close friends until she finally disappeared. After everything, she finally regained consciousness in her world and went back to her normal life as an intern at the hospital, but struggled as she didn't know if anything was real, yet knew her love for the emperor and her friends were real. Then, after realizing it was the day of Ophiuchus, she ran to the hill top thinking something would happen and she would be connected to the people she loved. Instead, she runs into Jia Cheng who is the cpop idol from season one who she mistaked the prince for when she first met him. Now, she mistakes Jia Cheng for the man she loved, and he completely serves her. After, when Fei Fei was about to lose all hope, she hears Emperor Tang's voice and turns around to see him standing there in modern clothing and full memories. Fei Fei then runs into his arms and the drama ends.
I appreciated this ending so much. In other dramas, once the lead came back to the present, the only happy ending they get is meeting a reincarnation of the man she loved, excited to fall in love with him all over again, only her keeping the memories of their love. Personally, I don't consider this a happy ending because it puts so much pressure on the present day love interest to be exactly like this man from the past and not know about it. I liked this ending because he still had his memories and they could pick up where they left off, but this ending left me with more questions. Did he just remember that he loved her? Or did he remember everything including being emperor? Was he always in this world, being a doppelganger of Jia Cheng or were him and the other Zodiac members transported and added? We did see a little flashback of the day before she was transported in ep 1, of bumping into Chen at the hospital, Leo being the taxi driver, and the Prince being the guy who got hit on the bike. The ending we got was extremely ideal, but it left so many questions they didn't need to answer, but I wanted answered.
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Dragged out
I stand by my opinion after finishing the first season of this series: If this show did not have Zhao Lusi or Xiao Zhan, I probably would have dropped it a long time ago. The first season I might have made it through with the story that actually got intriguing, but the second season was just a mess. Truth is, they could have just extended the first season a few more episodes and told the rest of the story in less time rather than dragging the series out for another 21 episodes.Fortunately, the episodes are short. I liked Fei Fei's character less in this last half of the series. Bei Tang Moran wasn't really present. Bei Tang Yi was still as boring as ever. The rest of the cast seemed like extras. The ending was rushed, and the music and audio and editing at times still felt slap dash.
Still, this was a nice series to pass the time, and one of the biggest ups about it is the positive female relationship between Fei Fei and Yanran--I loved these two together so much!
Overall, not a terrible series, but not a great one either. This series doesn't set out to be serious or meaningful, just entertaining and nonsensical, which is great for some laughs. I'd say enjoy the first season of 'Oh! My Emperor', but don't expect much from the second season.
And now my biased self will sit back and hope that the C-ent gods will grant my wish and put Lusi and Xiao Zhan in another series together as the main couple. I will forever be grateful.
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This review may contain spoilers
It started as fun and silly and then just got bad
This is a review of both season 1 and 2. I enjoyed season 1 fine understanding that it was more comedy than serious although the ending of season 1 made little sense to me.I will admit this showed up in my watch queue (it's says it's available on amazon but it's not) and Xiao Zhan is in it so I decided to give this a chance. Xiao Zhan is the second ML so he's not in it as much as I would like, but I still liked The Wolf even though he was not in it enough!
First season was confusing - I still have no idea which cancellation was who and what some of their powers were, which they never used except to play around. The FL was a cute at first but by season 2 was annoying. As for the ML, I have to assume he is a better singer than he is an actor.
In general the acting was terrible, Xiao Zhan was good, but you can tell how much he has learned since this show. I will say every time Morang realized that Fei Wei likes the emperor, he does a great job of show how sad he is. Here's the spoiler... I felt more for his character just cause he loved Fei Wei and she would never love him, then I felt for the emperor when Fei Fei the love of his life dies. Let's just say his acting was terrible, Also I had second FL syndrome as well. I loved the character of Yanran who was in love with Moran. Her character was smart and nice and she was a very different character growing along the way. If they ever had a third season it should be Moran on the thrown (since the emperor is apparently in a different timeline now?) and Yanran. I would watch that.
As for the story, it was silly fluff with bad acting and then the last 3 episodes happened. I'm not sure the need to kill everyone. Was that because the writers couldn't figure out how to get Fei Fei back to her time. Also do doctors in China dress like that? Short shorts and flannel????? Anyway, the show went all Game of Thrones Red Wedding but then they all cam back cause Fei Fei and her tribe saved them, So what was the point in a farce of a show.
Music was OK. I noticed my self humming the song every time Fei few and the Emperor do something silly. The song by Xiao Zhan is heartbreaking but beautiful,
Would I ever rewatch,,, no but maybe clips of just Xiao Zhan from the show.
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The story got potentional but overall it was disappointing
I'm not sure whether the drama plot is based on sth, it had some potentional but it was totally ruined by the bad acting and directing. Moreover the whole story is full with holes and things that make no sense, especially the last 3 episodes. They got those superpowers that we almost never see in action and in the end 5 of them got killed by a bunch of thugs which totally belittle the whole story. No character development whatsoever, no plot twists, too much product placement. We have more time for face mask ads than anything else. So 5 for the potentional of the story and the fun moments in it, I laughed quite a lot at some of the episodes, but the rest is no-no.Was this review helpful to you?
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not of the highest quality, but still very lovely!
this is a review for both season 1 and season 2!I watched this drama over the course of 3 days (I usually take weeks) because:
1. It was pretty fast paced so I never felt bored or lost.
2. Most of the characters were very charming and lovely and I liked seeing them.
- can I just say you will get second lead syndrome from this because I love moran so much it hurts he's so so beautiful inside and out and it HURTS when he kept repeatedly getting let down I'm :(
- on another note my absolute favorite couple/characters of this drama were yanran and moran if you like angst you will love this... THE PINING PLEASE>>> I really wish there were more chinese dramas with couples like them because I love them so much helppp sad that they weren't the leads :(
- also for fans of The Untamed I think one of the relationships in this drama (xiao zhan's character is in the ship ahaha) had a similiar wangxian tone to it... It wasn't made very obvious and there are only slight hints but there's one moment that makes me really ship them ahhh
- on another note I felt another potentially gay relationship (although they obviously won't make it obvious it could pass off as bromance) which was nice to see them include (this relationship is quite cute as well)
3. I really liked the ending and how open it was, you can make your own theories about it :)
4. The ost's were great too I couldn't stop humming and singing the songs for awhile afterwards, especially moran's song xiao zhan's voice is heavenly and it's my favorite song from him.
onto the things I disliked:
1. The costumes were very cheap and quite unrealistic also in my opinion some of the fight scenes weren't all that great.
2. The main couple really really wasn't it for me.. luo feifei was such a stereotypical character for me and most of the times I could hardly find her cute or charming because of how rude and bratty and disrespectful she was for the majority of the show... and beitang yi.. first of all the acting was very very mediocre compared to xiao zhan's acting (it shows from all of the comments and reviews about second lead syndrome haha) and I could barely find any depth in his character? He just quietly agreed to things most of the time and really nothing about him stood out to me he was so painfully boring to watch...
3. I also thought it was so disturbing to keep seeing luo feifei like beitang yi because he was really the only one who didn't believe in her and kept asking to have her killed, beheaded, constantly pushing her away. That's why I shipped moran and feifei in the beginning because he actually appreciated her (she didn't deserve him tho lmao), until yanran came along haha.
Other than all of that this drama is a nice watch if you're looking for something quick to watch because it's still very entertaining! Not too complicated, easy to understand, with an overall warm tone. I loved most of the characters even though a lot of them were very stereotypical and one dimensional (except moran and yanran and some others) and it still really got me in my feels.
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A Good Ending!
Again, I watched the first Series 1 and had to watch the 2nd one. It turned out to be a pretty cute storyline. I did get emotional at the end but for a reason. The cast was okay and they did the storyline alright just wished that this story wasn't too cute... The way the story was being told, I thought it should be a serious story since an accident was involved. They had good drama but the drama didn't seem like drama if that makes any sense. If somebody could just rewrite this and make it a serious drama series... I think it could get better ratings... If it were me I would keep some of the cast especially Xiao Zhan and have him play the lead. I did love the ending now that was right on point. Thank you! Well, that should be 300 characters.Was this review helpful to you?
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I enjoyed it (a review for both seasons)
So I decided to watch this drama, even though it is an older one, because I'm a fan of Zhao Lusi and plan to watch as many of her dramas as possible. This drama was fun, it's an easy watch and the storyline is interesting enough to hold your attention if you aren't really feeling the romance. It is a comedy romance and really lives up to that, almost every scene up till the last episode will make you laugh. Or at least it did in my case. Normally I don't really like love triangles but this one was fine, I didn't mind it's existence because Mo Ran knew his limits. I'm not going to lie, I was having trouble getting into the romance for the first few episodes of the first season. They had good chemistry but having just watched Hidden Love and my favourite cdrama ever being Who Rules The World, I have seen better chemistry between Zhao Lusi and her male leads. However, as this drama progressed and especially in the second season, I got into the romance more and more. By the end, I was very emotionally attached to them. Which made the ending that much harder. I am glad he joined her world at the end but I honestly wish she'd just stayed in the Zodiac Kingdom. I do have some gripes with this show, it is certainly far from perfect in my eyes. For one, I am so tired of the constant fat shaming in this drama. It was excruciating having these men constantly calling the female leads(but mostly FeiFei) fat when she is no where even close to fat. But even if she was, so what? And also the 'not like other girls' themes in this were a little irritating, except they were the opposite of normal not like other girls rhetoric. Male characters kept saying Fei Fei and Dali weren't like other girls, Fei Fei was average looking (except they casted Zhao Lusi so who on earth is going to think she's average looking) and talentless while Dali is undesirable to anyone but Wuchen because she's too man like. I'm used to the not like other girls stuff in cdramas, especially historical/Xinxia ones, but usually it's meant to compliment the female lead. This just felt like the male characters trying to tear them down.Speaking of side characters, I swear they were queer coding the relationship between Xie and Shang Yu. Especially at the end of the second season but maybe I was just reading too much into it. And I will say, my favourite couple was Dali and Wuchen. Though I loved the main couple and TangTang was cute with Xia Bing while it lasted, I loved the way Wuchen was totally head over heels for Dali. He seemed like the male character who loved his love interest the most. So their ending had me sobbing, severely. I hope they are ok after Fei Fei's clan healed them, that they were able to get married and *major spoiler* their baby was also saved. In terms of the main romance, Yi'er was very dumb. I get it was meant to be like that and played for laughs but sometimes it could be a little frustrating, as the viewer, when he wasn't getting Fei Fei's hints. Also what was with those kisses ? I know Lusi can do some good kiss scenes, both sweet and spicy ones, so I was so confused as to why they were doing the dead fish lip press. Especially for the final kiss scene, it's meant to be intense, romantic, and emotional but all I could think about was why they weren't for real kissing. I was stuck wishing for the kiss scenes to end soon because it was awkward to watch.
For the acting, it wasn't bad but Xiao Zhan and Zhao Lusi have both done better. I haven't seen the male lead before but he was good enough, same for all the side characters.
The soundtrack wasn't bad, the songs were all sweet and cute but not my favourite.
Overall, I recommend this drama. It's nice, it's funny, both seasons are good (but season 2 is better imo), and the romance is cute.
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This review may contain spoilers
I started this drama without any high expectation and I was not disappointed. In fact, I really enjoyed this drama. The story is good just don’t expect it to be unique with clever plots. Yes, there will be plot holes since this drama is somewhat a mix of parody, slapstick and historical/xianxia romance. I like the FL acting, I’ve seen her in the drama I Hear You. Almost all of the male cast are from X-Nine boy band (I’m not from China so never heard of them before nor Sean Xiao being part of this group ) surprised that these guys can act decently. Edit for Season2: I though the ending was good but it would have been better is the ML expressed more emotions in the “farewell” scene as the Emperor and more happiness when he meets FL in the modern world.
Still, I recommend this drama if you want something light, romantic, funny and easy to watch.
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