My Uncanny Destiny (2023)

Buckle up for a zany joyride

When you read the synopsis of this show, you would assume it to be a cheaply made, quickly produced filler to slot into a gap in the schedule. It could have been such a show, but it is so much more!

The show is a Chinese costume drama set in a mythical past where the country was divided in a number of warring states. Two particular city states have been at war for years due to some misunderstandings. I won’t bore you with the details as it is quite convoluted and contrived.

On the surface, the plot sounds like the usual palace intrigue, fight for power trope with a dose of romance. What I didn’t expect is a cheeky farce that works like a treat. It is over-the-top, manic, chaotic and racy. The narrative just has this devil-may-care attitude. Time and again I would think “they can’t do this” or even WTF but that’s exactly what happens. A lot of the times, it is for laughs but sometimes it is for the shock value as well. You can’t predict how far the show will push a particular line.
Is it a perfect script? Not by a long shot. There are tropey and confusing subplots as well as its fair share of plot holes. What saves the show is its internal core logic. There is a solid narrative thread that runs through the whole show that is unwavering so that the behaviour of main characters are consistent even though some of the split second action/reaction can be kooky and unpredictable.

Even as I wrote this, my mind is in turmoil. I would recall a cringey moments that made me facepalm and then a LOL gag would pop into my head only to be replaced by a really sweet, swoon-y moment. By all that is holy in dramaland, this show should not work but it does. It buoys you along with its manic pace and you are all in or you are out.

Another surprise is the company of young actors. They are not well known but the ensemble certainly made up for that with a great deal of commitment, solid acting abilities and decent comedic timing. By the halfway mark, you are so used to their antics that you just accept what they do as the norm, warts and all. The standout here is the FL, Zhang Yue Nan. She was the focus of many threads, and she shines while playing a variety of roles. The SFL, Fan Wei, is good as well. She plays the villain, twice and to good effect. Consider she is in her 20’s and only had a handful of support roles, this is not a bad effort. The ML’s are good and handsome, especially Yan Zi Xian. He can anchor a scene with his presence. However, a lot of the time, they play second fiddle to the strong FL’s. There are rough edges with some acting and overacting is to be expected in a comedy. It is all part of the bigger picture, and you have to cut them some slacks.

The various CP’s have good chemistry and they don’t shy away from skinship. Nothing more than kisses and hugs but they did it with some passion.

Another positive is the lush settings. The court set is of high standards and costumes (generic era/locale) are certainly a cut above average. Overall, it is a solid production. The minor negative is the dubbing. I’m not sure if the whole show is dubbed or if some of the actors dubbed themselves. The sound is patchy in the beginning but got better towards the end. It is a minor issue, but you notice improvements as the show progresses.

The ending is very good and consistent. We are rewarded with some fan service and most of the threads are closed satisfactorily. It doesn’t feel rushed while leaving its fans in a happy place.

I won’t say that it was love at first viewing, but it definitely grew on me. I can recommend this show and with a run of 24 x 30 mins episodes, it is not a huge time investment.

Sadly, this show will probably disappear into the Great Web Void soon as it won't be heavily promoted. That will be a shame.

Read More

Best C-Romcom so far, true comedy

This was a great find. I am new in C-drama and tried to find a comedy, or romcom, but usually funny moments got mixed with other storylines as a rule. I was told that comedies are not a typical genre in c-drama so My Uncanny Destiny could be seen as something new and it could in total be called a romcom.
It is lighter compared to othe c-drama I came upon, both the ML and FL are really good comedy actors. By far not every actor can make the viewers laugh.
This is also the first c-drama I just did not wish to end - it was so enjoyable to watch them.
Regarding the storyline - typically - it is not the storyline that is of top importance for a comedy in the first place. It is really the script and acting that matters.

Read More

A hidden, under-appreciated gem!

I’ve already watched all 24 episodes on IQIYI. Some might say this drama is cheesy or has a lot of silly humor, but I personally loved it. There’s nothing wrong with cheesy humor if it makes you laugh, and this drama made me laugh. To me, this is what ROM-COM should be – romance AND comedy.

I loved FL. She was a strong ruler without being a b****. She simply exuded strength and power by the expression on her face. She wielded power like a man – by her expression, by the way she carried herself, by her confidence. She didn’t have to be underhanded, scheming, vindictive or seductive. She was strong yet playful – I loved the winks she gave. She and ML were, indeed, a power couple, although ML tended to give way to FL, making her the dominant partner. My favorite scene: she regains her memory and seats herself on ML’s throne. When he finds her, she boldly declared who she is, but he takes it as an invitation and says provocatively, ‘Yes, my lord’, leading to a steamy kiss scene. I also loved the scene where FL is taking out the evil/crazy Qi Meng with arrows. I like a woman who can solve her own problems, and the men in her life recognized her ability to do so and stood back and let her do it.

I loved ML too. He was handsome and confident yet he fully supported FL and complimented her power with his own. He wasn’t intimidated by her – they were equals. I loved how she gave him strength and confidence when he needed it – like when marriage envoys from the third city (can’t remember it’s name right now) turned around and began to leave because SML felt insulted. ML starts getting antsy, but FL steadied him by placing her hand on his, and they ended up winning the game of chicken. He even looked cute dressed as a woman (loved that facial gesture he gave FL). I was little disappointed with how he reacted to learning FL’s true identity, but he quickly changed his mind once he thought she was in danger. After that, this couple remained solid – each loving and supporting each other – a wonderful power couple. One last thing I’ve got to say about ML – this man liked his rose-scented baths! I’ve never seen a ML bathe so much! And he has the Cadillac of bathtubs too! I hope it had a hot spring feeding it because I’d hate to be the servants that had to boil water and fill that thing!

The villainess was sufficiently hateful. Even though we had to watch her (and FL) marry ML, we knew it was a fake ceremony since ML/FL were on to her schemes. I usually don’t like these arranged marriage tropes, but it was clear that ML was in love with FL and would have dumped Qi Meng if FL had asked him to. Qi Meng wasn’t as annoying as some of these psycho chicks because FL always managed to get the best of her and foil her plots. As for the male villain, all I can say is he has a great bod which the director was happy to show us over and over again. I was disappointed that he escaped punishment at the end along with those old geezers who couldn’t accept a female ruler…even though she’d been leading them for years.

The supporting cast was loveable and added plenty of humor.

That being said, I’m not sure if I’m completely happy with the ending. Yes, ML/FL finally complete their marriage ceremony, but in the extra scenes, we see indications that there may be a sequel. If so, I’m not going to watch it because the Chinese have a way of ruining a good drama. I’m happy with finishing the story at episode 24.

Read More

Good things come to those who wait.

This is a very fast paced drama. For the first 7 episodes, I was considering dropping it but the plot immediately picks up by episode 8 and because of how fast paced it is, you start to enjoy it more!

Honestly, more than anything, the main reason I could keep patient until episode 8 was the comedy. This drama is ridiculous but so freaking hilarious, the plot is over the top, it's so unserious most of the time but during the times when it needs to be serious, every character/actor is on top of their game again.

HUGE Kudos to Guan Sanmei/Ye Zhaonan's actress - she plays both a 'man' and a woman and embodies her 'lord' persona so freaking well. She's a really charming actress to watch. Her facial expressions in some scenes were DEADLY, even I was shaking in fear for the villains but then she becomes really sweet again in normal scenes. Her character was just so fun to watch because of how well she played it.

Loved loved loved the chemistry between the two lords. Their romance is so sweet and once they made each other aware that they liked one another, the pandoras box was open and we just got sweetness and more sweetness in every scene between them. I loved this so much. Idk, maybe it's because this was a lower budget drama or is not broadcasted on the same network as the bigger dramas, but that was a huge saving grace for this production - because it seems like they had more freedom to just be as crazy as they wanted with the plot and as direct as they wanted with the dialogues and romance so it made the drama more enjoyable!

Overall, this was a funny, down to earth drama that brought out many laugh out loud moments from me. If you're looking to just have a blast watching something not too serious with very cute couple pairings and an interesting plot, I definitely recommend this.

Read More

Two cities rivals fall in love

This drama is about three cities and their city king. Ye Zhao Nan ( the female lead ) is disguise as a boy from birth. The male lead is the opposing city king ( who supposedly hates Ye Zhao nan). During one hunting experience, Ye Zhao nan fakes that she is getting assassinated and meets the male lead. The female lead buts her in the process of being saved and forgets her identity and as Ye Zhao Nan. She meets the three people " who claim to be her father and two brothers. These three are a spy and want to kill the city king aka male lead. SO they make up a story and lie to the female lead, even giving her a new name.

The first half of the drama was nicely done, funny, witty, light hearted, but the second half was so boring I practically skipped everything.

The leads have incredible chemistry! Love all of their scenes together, steamy scenes too.

I liked the female lead's acting because she can play this obnoxious, mean looking king pretty well. She may not be the prettiest but her acting portrays the character well.

The twin evil sister was kind of unnecessary and boring....

Read More

Legit Strong FL but the Men are not demonized

|Riddled w/ cliches but the KEY IS IN THE DETAILS|
My Uncanny Destiny’s main premise about a cross dressing monarch who falls for her enemy might not be new, but the way the producers directed and wrote the characters to be 4D without being too angsty is just so refreshing!

I don’t know who the writer is and their other work, but the way they decided to pace out the story by having subplots in each episode that contributes to the overall story arc made each episode exciting and relevant. We don’t see a lot of those useless, draggy scenes, repetitive misunderstanding between the leads, or side characters stealing the spotlight because most if not all of the episodes had a climax that had you wanting to watch the next episode. The writing was so on point that I don’t even mind that they teased about a 2nd season because the current season was tied up nicely.

|70% comedy and romance, 30% court intrigue|
Several costume dramas posing as rom-coms end up as being trying hard angsty, court intrigue dramas which is irritating. This is why I appreciate the fact that MUD never forgot it’s true rom com identity by giving us a lot of extremely cliche that it’s hilarious scenes, together with interesting romantic scenes throughout the episodes. That’s not to say that there’s no hardships in the story but rather that these obstacles are presented in a very matter of fact way and resolved in just 1 or 2 episodes. No need to drag the drama in several episodes. Likewise, we have to appreciate the directing because even with the limited budget, the team knew that for rom-com it’s more effective to concentrate on your characters than big sweeping battle scenes or boring repetitive court scenes.

I hope other writers/producers can learn from this team that even if they want to milk their stars, they should create stories that end properly and none of those misleading 24 episodes but are in fact 50 episodes but divided to 2 seasons so you’re left hanging in season 1. I’m looking at you drama with popular C starlet.

| Female characters are strong without being Mary Sues and demonizing the male characters|
I can recall several recent dramas define “strong” female leads as mary sues protected by plot armor — incredibly strong just because, doesn’t do or like feminine things, genius tactician, that doesn’t bow down to anyone (basically toxic traits in female form). What sets MUD female characters apart from the recent ones is that most if not all of them represent women in different shapes, form, and personalities and how they are strong in their own way.

We have the cross dressing FL, who proves she doesn’t only need to be good in kungfu to be a great heroine but she also needs to empathize with the people around her, and also use her brain to solve her problems. She’s not averse to asking help from the people around her (even the male characters) because she acknowledges everyone’s strengths.

We have several supporting female characters that are also strong in their own way. The spoiled princess that’s very witty and ingenious in her tricks that she was also able to use it to help her friend and change her man for the better. The initially irritating jealous girl that had a character arc turning her into the FLs friend. The doormat concubine that showed her loyalty and kindness that acknowledged her worth and fought for her own happiness. And the female villain/s that used her abuse to fuel her ambition making her a worthy opponent of the FL.

The male characters were not your typical aggressive, domineering type but more like the whole rainbow of male characters. The brawny, slightly dumb, ambitious, but patriotic general. The smart, suave, but playful 2ML. The bumbling adoptive family. And finally the smart, capable, confident, but also goofy ML that can plan as well as the FL but also knows when he needs to support the FL to do her thing.

|Ok chemistry, but not as addicting as LBFAD|
I thought I’d seen all kinds of romantic scenes, but MUD managed to show some interesting new take on kiss scenes. The ML and FL have ok chemistry which made their romantic scenes believable. If I were to compare the chemistry, it would be like Minglan’s chemistry with her ML — like soul mates turned lovers. Not as fiery but still as fun.

Read More

I love the law of Karma in this show

I just love this show. I wasn’t sure if I would like it because of the name and the first 3 episodes were not encouraging as well but I decided to give it a go and I am loving it. I love the fact that they are not shy about PDA and the law of Karma in this show is superb which is hard to see in Chinese drama, as they mostly redeem the villains but here you get what is coming to you. And I must say the script writer, the director and FL did a great job in portraying such a powerful personality. The FL does not flinch at the face of danger and she is undoubtedly smart and calculating and always stick to her principles and believes which I love that about her. She does not allow her gender get in the way which is how it’s suppose to be since she was actually raised as a boy and a king. I must say this is great show and we need Dramas like this pls.

Read More

It's a trap!

The funny thing about this drama is that the production quality is not bad. Based on the quality of the clothes, decor, and scenery, this drama should have easily been a B-rated idol drama. However, the storyline is so pointlessly ridiculous, that nothing could have saved it. Unlike the few B-rated dramas that turn out to be surprisingly enjoyable like "The Romance of Tiger and Rose", everything about the writing and the plot was nonsensical.

Acting: Bad and over the top
Plot: makjang and forgot to realize that it was supposed to be B-rated. I think they tried at some point to pull the "We know we're ridiculous but go with it" style of "The Romance of Tiger and Rose" but they failed miserably.
Music: Nope
Rewatch value: The romance wasn't even that cute or memorable for you to forgive the mediocrity of it all and go back to rewatch a few snippets.
Overall: I would give it a 0, but my mama raised my right so a 1 it is.

Read More

So funny, so much kissing, YES!

Super hilarious! I usually am not a fan of rom-com historical dramas, but you can't help but get sucked into this one. From the very start, I couldn't stop laughing!

This drama has the over-the-top comedy, so think slap-stick comedy with a little palace drama. If you don't think this is your jam, I beg you to give it a try because you will forever like this silly writing.

The best part of the drama was probably the cast, especially the leads. It's good to see some actors that usually have supporting roles or roles that aren't that big, finally do a drama where they can really shine.

The chemistry between the leads is really good and probably because they are in their late twenties (THANK YOU!). As much as I love watching young C drama actors, I like it when they cast someone over 25 (they don't look so baby).

The storyline is very comical and I love all the side couples. You can't help but root for all of the players. The plot is okay. It's a very basic storyline of some misunderstandings, plotting and keeping secrets (usually not my thing), but the comedy and skin-ship of the show really outshines everything else.

If you like kissing, there is PLENTY of that in this one.

The audio isn't the best as sometimes when they project really loudly, you can hear some of the static, but that is okay, it's a low budget drama, so you take it for what it is. Also, if there is a season 2, I REALLY do hope they have fight scenes (again probably because of budget) but I've never seen a historical drama that had little to no fight scenes to watch (I'm talking about the martial art epic scenes of people flying and jumping on trees).

Overall, if you need something uplifting and put smiles on your face, this is the show to watch!

Read More

Ice Queen wrapped in Candy

This drama surprised me on many levels.

It might be the only drama I know where the FL is actually smarter and more calculating than the ML.
Surely, it’s still a chinese drama so for the first half it’s a cat and mouse game but you already get glimpses into the true strength of the female lead.

The more you watch, the better it gets.
But now to the good vs the bad (spoilers ahead)

Good parts:
- the audio / dubbing is much better than I expected from a low budget drama like this
- The female lead, her deep voice and capacity to actually kill and rule like a man. Never saw this actress before but I‘ll closely follow her upcoming projects now because she is very good at looking cold and dominating. She sees through everyone and for once in cdramaland it’s actually believable that she grew up pretending to be a man. She doesn’t turn into a cutesy girl, and although in the earlier episodes she isn’t as calculating as later on, I‘d say preserve because it’s worth it :)
- The eye candy. Let’s be honest there was no actual need for the guys to be shirtless that much, but nonetheless I enjoyed it ;))
- the comedy is very slapstick funny and the crossdressing of the ML made me laugh out loud, he truly is a beauty
- the chemistry between all characters was good

About the romance part (spoiler territory):
I loved that the roles are reversed here, especially once they become a couple.
He is very devoted to her, following her advice and she holds the reins. The kisses are often steamy and unique (hint: stairway kiss).
Also: a couple that reads smut together, stays together- enough said ;D

The not so good parts:
- Love triangle. I‘m just not a fan of them, especially when the SML has a similar character to FL and you know they‘d fit together perfectly.
- The animal cruelty. It’s 2023. Do we still need to talk about how it’s not okay to hold up a bunny by its ears and putting in water, visibly struggling? Same goes for the rat. And the horse that was pulling a carriage, which was turned 180degrees in an instant and made it trip multiple times? ~ there was a disclaimer at the end but we have eyes ? especially after WRTW we know that "no animals were hurt" means absolutely nothing in cdramas.
- sometimes I loved the ML acting, sometimes I hated it. I loved his grin/wink at FL but I‘m still on the fence about him. I do like the actor in other dramas tho.
Lastly, it does suffer from a rushed (happy) ending - it’s good and all but given the post credits we might get a s2, who knows :)

All in all it was way better than expected and although it was it’s flaws it now belongs to the 10% of dramas that I didn’t drop half way, which means a lot.

The female lead deserves a 10/10 and will go down as the one FL in my opinion that was stronger than the ML, despite both being lords.

Read More