1This review may contain spoilers
Summary of Seasons 1 and 2, as well as the 2 movies!
For those who are incredibly confused about the difference between Season 1 and 2, as well as the 2 movies in-between, let me lay it out.In Season 1, a student named Liang Weiwei accidentally transmigrates into a historical drama starring an idol named Jing Qing. In that drama, her character is doomed to die within the first three episodes as a result of assassination. Throughout the season, she finds ways to avoid death, and eventually overturns the Emperor Jing Qing’s mistrust of her. They then end up in a happy marriage, which was cut short because she’s suddenly brought back to her own time where she meets a version of Jing Qing who seems to remember her from within the drama because they immediately embrace once they set eyes on each other. I don't know if this is the idol Jing Qing, but I suppose it has to be.
In Season 2, we realise that following the end of Season 1, she started dating Jing Qing back in her time. We are also led to believe that Jing Qing actually remembered her from when they were both in some alternate universe within the drama from Season 1. However, one fine day, Jing Qing just vanishes into thin air, and so Liang Weiwei finds her way back into the drama to meet him again, and ends up in another story where the characters are all largely the same, but the plot is different. This time, Liang Weiwei is the daughter of the previous Emperor and is now a villainous Empress destined to be usurped by her General Jing Qing. This General Jing Qing isn't the same as the Emperor from Season 1, but eventually, he does regain his memories of her in Season 1, and also falls in love with her anew in this new storyline. In the end, the General Jing Qing takes on the role of the villain in the story so Liang Weiwei can be spared countless deaths. When he dies, she vanishes and is transported back to her own universe. Compared to Season 1, I felt that this story was less exciting, although thanks to the ML and FL's good acting, I did shed tears when it came time for them to part again. The ending was left open, with the timeline fast-forwarding to 1 year on, when Liang Weiwei finds herself transmigrated into the same drama again, this time, slightly earlier in the storyline, as a princess while her father the Emperor is still alive. Presumably, this will then lead to a Season 3, which will hopefully be more exciting than Season 2.
The 2 movies in-between are actually just 1 movie split into 2 parts. It somewhat continues on from Season 1, but with a slightly different premise, so the entire continuity arc can be confusing. Just know that technically, it occurs in an alternate universe from Seasons 1 and 2. For the movie, a novelist named Liang Weiwei is dating an up-and-coming actor named Jing Qing. However, because she's always neglecting him in favour of writing, he eventually breaks up with her. While she's busy being devastated by the break-up, she gets forcefully pulled into a historical drama with a premise similar to Season 1, except this time, she isn't the Empress, just someone who looks exactly like the Empress Liang Weiluo, who is a woman scorned and has set her eyes on the throne. The Emperor here is the Jing Qing from Season 1, who has been searching all this time for his Empress Liang Weiwei. However, it's important to note that the Liang Weiwei from Season 1 is different from the one in the movie, so while she has some affection towards the Emperor because he looks like her ex-boyfriend Jing Qing, she doesn't love him. Because the main attraction of the entire series is the romance, I felt that the movie wasn't as much of a draw as Season 1 because it's almost like a one-sided love between Season 1's Emperor Jing Qing and the movie's Liang Weiwei. When the movie's Liang Weiwei returns to her own universe, she finds that the novel has written itself, and the Emperor Jing Qing never fell in love with anyone else for all 56 years of the rest of his life, as he promised her. To prevent that from happening, she rewrites the story and reunites Emperor Jing Qing with Empress Liang Weiwei starting from the day of their wedding. As for the novelist Liang Weiwei, she goes to find her actor ex-boyfriend Jing Qing, who welcomes her back with open arms.
So that's about it! I love how tiny and adorable the FL is, and the ML's acting isn't shabby either even though he isn't quite as eye-catching as the FL. Would definitely recommend a watch especially because the episodes are all so short. Hopefully a version with English and other subs will appear on YouTube's MGTV channel soon. Enjoy!
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Round 2 of how long can Wei Wei live
This is much like the first season where Wei Wei tries to make it to the finale without getting killed. The roles are reversed and while Jing Qing tries to kill her, Wei Wei tries her best to make him give that up. She tries to make him recall the past while protecting and helping him with his plans in the current season. This ends up with funny moments and disappointments from both Wei Wei and Jing Qing. While there are schemes all around, Wei Wei and Jing Qing try their best to navigate around them. Overall, its a fun, short drama that was a lot like the first one even though the roles were different. It's slightly longer than the first season as each episode is slightly longer, but still not bad to watch if you liked the first one.Was this review helpful to you?
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Compared to the 1st season, lacking in some areas though still packs emotional punch
I loved season 1 because it was cliche but fun! It was a delight to see the great chemistry between LQ Wang (who plays Liang Weiwei ) and Ryan Cheng (who plays Jing Qing). They are such a power couple and I hope they do more dramas together. Anyway, combined with a strong OST, good humor, solid acting, memorable scenes and the right amount of angst to pull at heartstrings, the first season was perfect.Season 2 unfortunately doesn't live up to the standard. It leans too much into the silliness and focuses too much on letting the actors/characters try to be funny in the first episode. It starts to pick up around 1/3 of the entire series and actually has an interesting and expanded storyline from the first season, but it lacks strong directing and so suffers by being forgettable, as in, the scenes are straightforward and doesn't have much aesthetics (other than the costumes). Furthermore, the lack of use and lack of new and memorable OSTs is unfortunate. (I think there's one song that came through at the end but not soon enough.) They reused the first season's OST for the ending theme but really, they should've created another version or a different song altogether to let season 2 stand on its own.
What still holds up: when there are emotional (or death) scenes, it is still angsty and beautifully painful. The cute and sweet scenes also still hold up because they both are so cute together. It is perfectly acted by LQ Wang and Ryan Cheng.
So, honestly, what holds this series together is LQ Wang and Ryan Cheng. You watch this series for them and for Liang Weiwei and Jing Qing. They are likeable characters with a love story that crosses dimensions and you want them to cross all obstacles and be together.
Overall, this is like a low budget version of Eternal Love. It keeps coming back by popularity (and MGTV"s cashgrab attempt) and it flips the script by letting the characters play different roles this time around. It's interesting, but not as fun as the first season.
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