I have never seen such an amazing chemistry between the lead couple. EVER. Whenever they were together it was like seeing fireworks. Seriously.! I have seen so many dramas but this has by fare the best chemistry ever.
Wallace was amazing at his role. His acting was superb and so believable. As was XiaoRans. An amazing female and male couple. APPLAUDS!!!
The acting was generally great from the whole cast and deserves a perfect score.
Wallace was so great at his jealousy scenes that I melted every time. Not only by that but the kisses killed me on the spot. That's how good it was.! xD
And yeah the guy is FREAKING HOTTTTT. Ahhhh. I will never get a guy like that.
The story was great and really intense. It hooked me really well and kept me wanting to watch more and more. Episode by episode.
A lot of stuff happens but not at the same time so it's build very well. I liked the flow. It was almost perfect. ^^
I got MAD, SAD, IN A KILL MODE, DEVASTATED, HOT, HAAPPPYYY, OVERJOYED and COOLED down again. So this was a very joyful ride since it ended happy too. YEAHH
Though I'am still in a mood of not knowing what to do with my love for the 2. lead guy. He was soo sweet and deserved more too. But I already knew and wanted her to end up with by BIAS, the lead guy!! :D
Anyways I would say this is a very recommendable drama for u guys who likes HOT chemistry beside some action and drama. Especially if you are in a drama-slump. It will wake you up right away. If I were you I would watch it! Believe me you have never seen anything like this. The chemistry! WOW.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm not really sure how I feel about this drama. I don't want to say that I really enjoyed it but I don't want to say that I dislike it either. Great things in this drama:
-the acting
-the chemistry between the main lead actors
-it's loosely based off a real person in history
-formidable villains
-the pace generally isn't too slow unlike many dramas
-some character development
-happy ending unlike many Chinese historical dramas
-well thought out uses of symbols and cinematography
Bad things in this drama:
-the setup for the ending
-frustrating villains but this is what the drama intended so it's not actually a bad thing
In comparison, the good things should outweigh the one real bad thing, which is the ending. However, the ending really decides how good the drama is. I don't want to give any spoilers, but the drama writers kinda pulled a deux ex machina from their butts at the end which I wasn't particularly happy about. I appreciate the effort to end the drama on a positive note but still...
In any case, the journey through most of the drama itself will probably negate the weird ending. I'm rating the rewatch value lower because I'd skip all the angsty villainy parts and just rewatch the good romantic scenes. Overall, pretty good drama!
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Signed up just to write this review
This is gonna contain some mad spoilers so fair warning! I signed up for an account just to write this...I'm so angry? With myself, with the plot, with the male lead just ugh.I'm a fan of the obsessive/possessive male lead trope, all is well in fiction. Additionally, I've watched my fair share of Chinese dramas taking place during the war. That being said, the initial setup for the story was promising and I was really into it. Female lead and male lead had a touching love story. And Wallace is amazing at the obsessed male lead as usual.
BUT THEN (SPOILER ALERT!) we dig into the second half of the drama and I wanna slice the male lead in half. I love the obsessive/possessive male lead trope, particularly because the devotion/madness is so thrilling. And so, I absolutely CANNOT STANDDD unfaithfulness and cheating, the second the male lead even thinks to fall into a stupid trap setup by a villain female character...I just can't. I had to squint and skip through him sending the FL to France TO MARRY ANOTHER WOMAN? Then when the FL left him (AND WENT THROUGH HELLLL like holy shit I felt so bad for her. She literally gave up EVERYTHING to be with ML...) he still had sex with other women, and even found a replacement/brothel chick that looks like FL.
I was repulsed. It's the complete opposite of what I love in the obssessive/possessive trope, and what makes it worse is while the ML was screwing other women (and this is after he fucked up FL life, tried to kill her AND made her miscarry their child) the FL had to fight tooth and nail to survive. She had already been disowned by her family to be with ML, had no resources, was almost killed by ML new wife (who really is just a new level of evil female side character...in most dramas they move on and somewhat redeem themselves but wow I really wanted to stick a fork through her eye) and had a miscarriage.
Again...all this shit happened bc male lead wanted to marry another woman for military power...while lying to female lead and sending her overseas so she wouldn't know...while she was pregnant with their child...and then STILL expecting her to wait 3? 5? Years for him bc "im doing everything for you"
Won't give major spoilers about the ending but I was numb by that point and just begging for the plot to turn and let FL be happy or move on with someone else. The possessiveness/obsession of the ML LITERALLY ALMOST KILLED HER? And he even broke off the marriage while she was pregnant for power??? Like I was so done by the ending I just wanted her to change her name travel to a different country and live peacefully.
OKAY I've said a lot and I'm done angry typing (for now lol) this drama really wasted my time. It's sad bc I enjoyed the beginning a lot. Now I just feel so much rage and all I want is to stab the male lead.
TLDR/ good setup but ML eventually screws other women and FL is like almost dead...a lot. Usually bc of ML (grief...miscarriage...blood loss? She almost died a lot for this man I really cannnnot) NOT WORTH YOUR TIME IF YOU CAN'T STAND ML/female villains in the plot.
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I have to say one of the strong points in the drama is that it has a solid plot, and is it fast paced. There is always something happening so I don't ever remember it being draggy, which a very important factor. Nothing can bring the drama down more than the feeling that nothing is happening and the story is going round and round. Thankfully that wasn't the case for this drama. Another point I liked was the costume, decoration, and makeup used throughout different stages of the main characters' life. I like the colours used and the different hairstyles. What was annoying was the dubbing, which would prevent me from evaluating the acting fairly, but I think in the very least, it was decent overall.
If I am to talk about characters however, that is my main issue with the drama. First of all, other than about 6-7 characters, all surounded by the main love story, and all the others were no more than extras. second of all, to put simply, most characters's way of thinking and actions did not make sense to me whatsoever, which totally disconnected my feelings for this drama. I'm saying this mainly about Pei Lin, Jing Wan and Jin Zhi. Their emotions are too reckless and volatile. Sometimes it felt more like lust and possessiveness rather than "love". Even when in love, their priorities were all over the place. It was hard for me to empathize when most of the time I was rolling my eyes.
The process that Jian Zhang went through was actually interesting, but I felt they didn't go deep enough. I think his character would've been portrayed better if they had given more character to his siblings. The Doctor was my favourite but mostly because he was the voice of reason in this drama, telling the characters exactly what's on my mind. Unfortunately none actually listened to him. One character I really liked and cared for was Pei Lin's sister. Unfortunately she was casted on the side.
For all those reasons, the show overall felt uneven. There were great episodes and there were not so great ones. By the time I got to the ending, I had lost any emotion left for the characters, and did not care much for the outcome.
As for music, it was fine overall, but there was one song that was played when some characters are in agony that felt too modern and out of place.
Overall, if you love dramas all about intense love and romance, you may find exactly what you're looking for here and may find it decent to boot. If you're looking for a more realistic story, with logical characters, about somewhat fitting pracmatic leader, this may not be the drama for you as it wasn't for me.
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Personally, I think the acting is good, it's just that the script makes everything look a little silly. (See episode 10). The music is sometimes "misplaced" too which makes me cringe or laugh, sometimes both.
But let's focus on the story. Many say that the female lead went through a lot of suffering, but I think for that time period, those things could really happen to a girl. Also, karma. She didn't really treat her parents right. There were so many ways some events could be avoided, but she let things get out of hand and only thought about herself.
The male lead. Good lord. He some issues he needs to work out. The rough handling of women, is pretty blatant and off putting, but then again, considering the time period (we still have these now), it is possible that it's just way men in power were.
Again, watch this drama if you're in a mood to cry or feel bad. You know, one of those days when you just want to cry.
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Acting/Cast: Like almost all chinese dramas I have a hard problem with the acting of some actors, but I must say that the chemistry between the leads at this drama is amazing! Wallace Chung became one of my favorite chinese actors after this drama, I have a huge problem when I came across with actors who have beautiful eyes language and although sometimes his acting is a bit weird he nailed Murong Feng in a very handsome way. He could transpose all of the character feelings and almost all the time I wished I was Jing Wan, specially when he was kissing her (OMFG, he’s an amazing kisser! It felt like he was devouring her, such a passionate and hot kisses). Li Xiao Ran also did an amazing job as Jing Wan, my only problem was when she needed to look strong and firm since she looked kind weird, but almost all the time she transposed really well the feelings. For me it’s really hard to find good chinese actress, they always look weird for me but for this character they made a good choice.. I’ll repeat again: what an amazing chemistry and we have a lot of hot kisses! My huge problem with the cast of this drama was Qi Fang as Cheng Jin Zhi, I didn’t like any scenes with her.. her acting skills are really bad in my opinion and her wig at the beginning of the drama make it a lot of worse. All the rest of the supporting cast did a great job and did their role well.
Music: This drama didn’t had any memorable song for me, the music in the drama is really good but not too much into my liking ><. The one that I did liked was the opening song.
Overall: This drama became definitively one of my favorites chinese one. The reason is that I found all of characters here so real, so human. They deal with their pride, dreams and desires in a very realistic way; almost all the time putting themselves before the other (wich is very human) and they pay the price of their choices. I know that sometimes this drama can be very unrealistic, but wich drama isn’t? I found the love story very beautiful and I really liked the way the characters progressed. It’s a drama that is very worth to watch if you like historical dramas with strong leads and militar/civil war theme. After this drama I’ll try to find another ones with Wallace Chung, cause I fell in love with him here. Be prepared to cry a lot and be addicted! You will not want to get up of front of the TV, since this drama flows really well that you didn’t even see the episodes going by.!
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Plot consists of various elements that were placed together in harmonious way, everything about the drama is excellent there are more than a few interesting twists and tuns in the plot although there a few strange plot turns that leave asking what/why? But regardless you will still want more.
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The drama starts out pretty solid. We see a conflict between the two main characters, then go back to explain how they got to that point. I'm always a fan of that, since it catches your interest right away. Our hero falls hard and fast—almost a little too fast, though part of that is belatedly explained. Our heroine struggles with equating her feelings for him to who he is to other people; a warlord.
There were really good points to this drama. I liked the story for the most part. The acting was dramatic, but whatever, when I'm in a certain mood I like that. I even liked the part where the hero made a decision of asshole proportions, because it caused REAL drama, the kind of thing I'm totally here for.
What kept me from loving this drama was that bits of it were overdone, even for a melo. There were also parts that dragged on. I felt that they could have cut down on chunks of episodes and created a really good, solid drama.
I won't say that you should or shouldn't watch it. Just be aware that the drama has flaws that might impact your enjoyment.
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