This review may contain spoilers
GREAT DRAMA
Who knew this drama was so good to watch, the main theme was Yellow River and huge flood during Qing dynasty that killed people and destroyed properties, but also the portrayal of political situation during KangXi dynasty. This drama is from actual historical background, many characters were real people, real tragedy, political concentration and challenges. A very casual acting for all actors, not strict to the Imperial rules and bend to have some funny scenes. I love Luo Jin here, he's very casual Emperor KangXi, very ambitious and smart, determined and focused, devoted to his people and country, understand the politic and his officials. He couldn't find solution with the river, he decided to recruit talented people by Scholar national examination for idea to manage the division of the Yellow River with no luck. By chance he met Chen Huang and was selected to work together with Jin Fu - the governor from a province that affected by the flood and experiencing first hand of the tragedy.What's so great about this drama? None of the actors were beautiful or handsome, none childish, all were just ordinary looking people, minimum make up, realistic events with appropriate responses, nobody straining their face just to get expression out, no romance, no cringe. Acting was great, collaboration between actors were excellent, soundtrack was amazing, articulating literacy brilliantly. Probably, not the most flattering drama that would 'hit' the roof but nonetheless it's a great watch. KangXi as a young Emperor was way ahead of his time, developing Navy and introduced canons, trading with foreigners. I love it when he consulted monetary need to Grandmother which she apparently responsible with Treasury. Although there're mentioning Taiwan, like to reminded people that Taiwan ancestry belonged to China, it relates to the political situation between China-Taiwan continuous conflict since early on. Asides from that, KangXi proved to be ambitious as well as firmed to his vision of the country. Lots of corrupt officials, kissing ass officials to their superiors, bureaucracy, opposition. Some glory and victories, regret and sadness, hopelessness and failures, funny and snarky comments.
So much aggravation on my part for watching those officials who abused their power and corruption, last few episodes- an Emperor who made a wrong decision by insisting to stop building the dam and punished TianJi and Gov Jin when it finally revealed his appointed people for the wrong job and caused final flood disaster that killed (again) thousand people and properties. Looking at additional support actors (as refugees/citizen) as they claimed the people were hungry and resolved in cannibalism but none that I saw skinny enough to portray famine or starved to death situation. Look at them to be well fed.
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LIVING IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST EMPERORS
I'm in love with Chinese culture and Chinese history, and in short everything relating to China. I watched this drama after studying Chinese history, and I can say that Qing Dynasty, the last one, is absolutely my favorite one. I love it since its origins until its end, the very little seed of Modern China. Kang Xi and Yongzheng are my favorites and I admire them a lot. So how could not watch this drama? I won't deny it, i CRIED A RIVER tons of times because of all the historical reference in one of the reigns where culture shines greatly. They had shadown to and this drama depicts everything perfectly. I don't recommend this drama to someone not really interested. Politics, history, limited historical fiction, no romance, and a little comic relief.The cast is full of great actors, BUT.
Luo Jin potraying Kang Xi made me love even more the Emperor, admire him with his charming behaviour and perfect acting. And yes, a lot of the events presented are absolutely REAL. Two of the ministers are portrayed in a little different way from th original counterpart, but it's very limited.
The plot is engaging since the beginning, and in my opinion Luo Jin was not simply acting, but he was able to depict a real man, he made Kang Xi alive again, from serious behaviour, rage, smile and so on.
But in this drama, you really get to love everyone, because they are not mono-dimensional, but they are ""grey"" characters, with positive and negative vibes. The drama mixes great emotional scenes to some comic relief in a very few portion. And the Empress Dowager is like a guide throughout Kang Xi's life and for the audience.
I CAN'T COUNT HOW MANY TIMES I CRIED AND SHIVERED
The bittersweet final part is something I really loved.
I recommend this drama to fall in love with China culture.
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This review may contain spoilers
A potentially great drama fettered by unnecessary political propaganda and cultural posturing
The Yellow River is one of the longest running rivers in the world, and the second longest in China. While its length is eclipsed by the Nile and by its Chinese cousin, Chang Jiang, the Yellow River may just be the best candidate out of all major running waters in the world to illustrate the notion that Mother Nature is a b!tch. Indeed, successive Chinese dynasties have attempted to pacify the Yellow River, often without success. Under the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese would once more attempt a pacification effort, thus the focus of this drama series.This drama starts off well, with a more realistic portrayal of the Qing Dynasty at work. The characters are not played by the so-called 'fresh meat' cadre that tend to plague everything else, and it is very refreshing. The Kangxi Emperor here is not an individual usually depicted as spending more time in his harem than governance, but an attentive ruler akin to his historical counterpart, who was a noted workaholic. Another highlight is the character of Empress Dowager Xiao Zhuang, the woman behind the man, who was a major influence in Kangxi's upbringing, and a key power-broker in the Dynasty, with a subdued performance from her actress to mirror her historical counterpart. Additionally, the trio of characters of Chen Huang, Jin Fu and Yu Zhen Jia all have strong performances from their respective actors.
Kangxi's endeavor to pacify the Yellow River was a major undertaking, and this drama did its best to display the efforts invested in regulating the water flow as well as the consequences when the efforts failed. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives are affected each time a major flood occurs, and the survivors would have to contend with a shortage of shelter, food, medical supplies and worst of all, plague. Given the logistics of the era, entire villages could be wiped out before even a glimmer of government aid. Also befitting the subject matter, the Yellow River itself is not depicted with any hint of glamour, but as what it is in real-life, a giant stream of disgusting brown.
But, while the focus of this drama should be Kangxi's attempt to pacify the Yellow River, during mid-series, this crucial undertaking was rendered as a backdrop for other major events that took place during his reign. Unfortunately, this is where this series became marred by current Chinese politics, where its heavy-handed inclusion of frustratingly cringy propaganda reflected a very obvious attempt to appease the current Chinese administration. Take Kangxi's stance against Tsarist Russia to retain Outer Manchuria for example, this entire event, which weighed so much during the Qing Dynasty was glossed over in a number of episodes with fleeting mentions as to not poke Russian sensitivities given the cordial relations enjoyed by both countries today. In comparison, the conquest of Taiwan became paramount, a symphony of tears and blood, and the desire to reunify all Chinese under one roof, Han or Manchu. Hilariously, the Kangxi era was when sharp ethnic divisions made its way into society, with the Han ethnic group gradually being sidelined. Moreover, neither the Zheng nor Qing regime ever managed to conquer Taiwan entirely. Zheng regime's Tungning Kingdom contained only a sliver of territories in the South West of Taiwan that accumulated to less than 10% of the entire island, while the Dutch continued to maintain their presence in the North for a time. The Qing fared better and managed to extend their influence to the north of the island, but never beyond the central mountain ranges. Yet, this drama pretended as if the entirety of Taiwan was already under Chinese (Zheng) occupation, which cannot be further from the truth. Historically, the Qing Dynasty also made two serious attempts to appease the Zheng regime by granting the latter with de-facto independence, and if it was not for Zheng Jing's greed in his desire to retain mainland territories, history could have been rewritten. But, for obvious reasons, this fact is never mentioned. Another issue with this drama, just as with all other Chinese (palace) dramas, is the portrayal of the bureaucracy almost entirely as a group of scheming and corrupt individuals save for some key-figures. This portrayal often makes me wonder if future showrunners would stop their overreliance on this trope to prolong a series, any series.
Overall, a well-acted and solid series fettered by unnecessary political propaganda, in addition to the overuse of similar tropes found on just about every historical drama out there. Nonetheless, it is still one of the better Qing-era dramas, and I do recommend it as long as one can see past its obvious flaws.
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This review may contain spoilers
The aftermath of going against the Emperor's will | The favored river God's illogical death & legacy
"Without a body after death, the soul gains true freedom." - Kang XiI want to start this review by stating how dissatisfied and disappointed I am on the path they took to conclude Chen Huang's role and character in this story. I understand that they want him to be viewed as someone who died valiantly and unyielding, however, I want to retort back and say that he was played dirty by the writer instead. His legacy was later set up as monumental worthy of nobel prize but in reality it was their way to make up for their incompetence to develop and expand his characters purpose and abilities. Like, they know he's extremely capable but the problem is that they are not talented enough to cultivate and utilize it properly. Hence his unjustifiable and illogical death.
Also, after scrutinizing this story, I wanted to say that they should have not given this drama the title 'The Long River' and instead come up with something related to the Emperor's ambition and regrets. I feel like the title doesn't live up to the screen time the 'Long River' has gotten. Not to mention how neglected the characters (Cheng Huang & Jin Fu) working on the actual river are.
On the good side, I wanna say that the writer of this story is exceptionally gifted in giving in depth purpose and development to the side characters. Heck! I feel like all of them combined has gotten more focus and screen time compared to the actual protagonists of this show. Which is really annoying because it seems like all his attention was diverted to them to the point where he had forgotten who the real leads are!!
In addition, the writer also seemed to be well-versed to topics related to politics—its structures, components and system. Reason why he's totally engrossed and invested to the political infighting of the story. I can even proclaim that this is heavily centered to that; which is understandable since river construction has to go through such thorough planning, discussions and approvals. The problem is... it's extremely focused on the dramas happening between the 2 different political faction that it has strayed away from the main issue of the story.
One thing I want to sincerely praise and applaud this drama for is its attempt to depict the struggles of the righteous and upstanding officials under the well established and deeply rooted corruption in the government; as it proves that attaining good governance was and will never be easy even to those incorruptible officials; and that it automatically puts anyone on the spotlight that risks their life to an apparent tragic ending.
Just to add up, I had this idea written while I was watching this drama "A nation will thrive and flourish under a good governance" and I must say that it proves me wrong as this story demostrates how even the Emperor was tolerant and susceptible to corruption.
Timeline and phasing - The transition between timelines are smoothly executed to the point where I almost got out of track on how much time/days/months/years have passed since the previous events. lol
Graphics, site set up and design were impressively realistic! You can clearly see that this production was greatly supported through their budget. I mean, even the placards are grandly designed.
Lastly, I just want to mention how everything went south when Emperor Kang Xi's patience and tolerance towards Chen Huang & Jin Fu finally snapped!
Story - 9.0, You will only notice that something is wrong while watching the last 3-5 episodes. Even with my grave rants above, I still wanna say that this drama was well produced and directed. It's just that they focused too much on 1 aspect of the story and was never able to get out of it till the end. The story strayed away from how I expected it to be, which is about the 'Long River'.
Acting/Cast - 10, Perfect set of artists! I'm out of words of how good all the actors are and honestly, this is one of the drama where I don't really have to worry about the acting and perfomance. It's highly visible that they're mostly skilled veteran and even those who are not, acted and blended really well.
Music - 10, At first, I thought it is too 'opera' based but then I realized that the overall music was selected to correspond to the era this story was set on. The music delivers this melancholy vibe and feeling that made me feel the sorrow and pain shown on screen. It depicted and helps hightens the emotions of the scenes.
Rewatch Value - 8.0, I never really thought that something was wrong with this drama until I reached the denouement. I hate how it was ended in a rather loosely manner and that's also the reason why I don't think I can watch it again. This rating is actually more on how good the drama is during my initial watch. It was good but I probably will not re-watch it.
Overall - 9.0, This drama could have been one of my favorite, only if they didn't spend so much time focusing on the political propaganda and agenda of the story. This show was promising but was tainted by how lazy and unreasonable they delivered its ending.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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Dramatic War on the River
Most historic dramas focus on the power struggle, succession to the throne and wars between the neighbouring countries. Those subjects are fascinating and creating captivating dramas that tell those stories seems easy.This series is absolutely unique! It focuses on an engineering projects - dam construction on the Yellow River. The subject sounds totally boring and I only started to watch this drama because of the beautiful cinematography - I did not expect to be invested. I was so wrong! It turns out that when you are a good story teller, you can take any subject and turn it into gold. Our characters fighting against the river, which poses detrimental threat to the people, turn out not only to be nerdy engineers, but also valiant heroes.
The level of attention to the detail is out of this world and if you watch closely, you can learn a lot about how people managed to do everyday work. Acting is top notch. Music is simply beautiful.
Trigger warning: the subject of war with Taiwan is also important in this drama, which is quite unpleasant, but an obvious censorship requirement, I suppose?
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2022 dark horse serie.
Finally a series based on people who took part in a titanic project.The work of builders, the research upstream by planners, is often forgotten by the screenwriters of other nations.
Beautiful OST, filmography, costumes, sets & acting.
You are lucky China, to have many good dramas.
I'm from France, in the 21th century, we only have Podcast style tv series with no logical story - apart from :
-《Kaamelott》;
-《Camera Café》 ;
-《Petits Meurtres En Famille》;
-《Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie》;
which were very good, but this is so few.
As well as screenwriters & actors who are too ideologized, sadly.
Nobody knows our series since many years because of that.
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