Wonderland of Love (2023)

A Truly Beautiful Drama

Okay, now I understand why this drama has such high ratings.

It truly deserves even more than that. It was beautifully crafted with a compelling storyline, the best chemistry and romance between the leads, heart-wrenching moments, and a flawless OST, scoring a perfect 10/10. I could go on and on about how awesome this drama is. Each episode feels like a little emotional journey that sticks with you. It's not just a show; it's like living these moments with the characters.

However, one minor drawback was the occasional repetitiveness, particularly in certain scenes. There were too many small breakups and goodbyes, which at times felt excessive. Additionally, their relationship seemed somewhat toxic and manipulative after some point. Following a breakup, they would reconcile as if nothing had happened, without addressing the issues that occurred, honestly I found that frustrating.

Not every relationship is perfect, and in the end, it was sufficient that their love made sense and was convincing. After numerous tears, the show is finally finished.

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A good drama with a touch of annoying characters and boring moments, but with perfect ending

finally finished this drama after a few weeks. I have many things to say about it, I think this will be long.

Let's start with the positive points :
1) The leads have amazing chemistry, good kissing scenes and many sweet moments. This pairing is perfect.
2) ML character was great in many ways (he wasn't perfect, but in general I like his character) and good acting from Xu Kai. He's a strong ML and has good fighting skills. He's respected by many and a great leader. I like a strong and intelligent ML.
3) The romance starts early and it's a main focus. The interactions and bickering from the leads were good most of the time.
4) Love the second couple (Er and Peach). Their moments and interactions started early too. They are cute and I like both characters. Their romance is sweet without problems or misunderstanding. Wish we could have seen them with a child at the end
5) The friendship is good and I enjoyed seeing that. The bandits, Bao, General Pei, etc ... I consider them good characters.
6) In my opinion Sun Jing is a good villain. He is still an intelligent and strong character + not the annoying type. The part of the plot fighting him was good for me.
7) I like Consort Xiao (the former Crown Princess) character. She's a strong women, a good person and I felt her story. She made contributions and sacrifices to help take back the throne. She feel in love in the enemy, but that didn't stop her to do the right thing and help ML. She was unhappy has the crown princess, but she found happiness at the end in seclusion and with her son.
8) General Han (to one who protected the crown grand son, don't know if I say his name right) was also a good character. Love his loyalty and how he protected him till the end. Glad he survived and still teach him.
9) Cui Yi (FL's father) is bad ass when he fights and was also an interesting character. Glad he overcame his illness and can teach the future emperor. But I would have like to see him again for the ending, even if he was briefly mention.
10) The scenery and cinematography is beautiful.
11) The fighting scenes are really good and interesting to watch
12) Ep 30 is pick and amazing : the fighting, the deaths, the emotions. It is truly heartbreaking and good cinema. It was so sad to see ML watch his friends dies without being able to save them and Bao :( He protected him until his last breath, I lost it when he placed himself in front of ML to shield him, receiving arrow after arrow...
13) The ending was one of the best thing about this drama for me. Not an open or annoying 2 mins happy ending. We have a whole episode for the ending. That is exactly the ending I wanted : Him ruling until the crown grand son is old enough to rule and after that, doing what he always wanted to do, going back to the border. Then they live happy ever after with their kids and with Peach + Er also there. It was such a sweet ending seeing them with their kids and it was cute that the boys were wearing blue clothes and the girls red. I was also touch with the graves scene and them remembering their fallen friends. It is a satisfying ending : we see him ascending the throne as emperor, the world at peace, the Gu family getting what they deserved, her getting pregnant, her giving birth and then seeing their lives a few years lather at the border.
14) The costumes are great
15) The music is really good, just like the intro and the ost. I loved watching the intro every episode.
16) The plot in general is good

Now the negative points or things that I liked less about this drama (some is just me complaining ahah not really bad things) :
1) There are a few annoying and unlikable characters (maybe too much for my liking, made the drama less enjoyable), let's go thorough some of them :
- Liu Cheng Feng is one of the worst and most annoying character ever. He obsession with FL and his delusion ruined the drama for me a little. His presence was annoying from beginning to end, it took him so long to finally die. He wasn't a good villain for me, just an annoying character, just looking at his face I wanted to skipped. He shouldn't've have been there till so late in the drama, his presence was unnecessary since also we have other villains.
- Mrs Gu (prime minister Gu's daughter) : that girl also annoyed me from her first appearance to her last. I agree that she was kinda good at scheming and she made her way to the palace + at first she wasn't unnecessary, but she needed to be gone sooner. Just her talking was irritating me and her face also. I was also just annoy that ML wasn't clear earlier towards her (even if it was so satisfying when he finally did). Why did he let her go to his place and giving him gifts. He was to polite at first. I truly hate obsess second lead and this drama has 2... so for me that was a let down also because they were there until almost the end and no development (like the guy in ''A journey to love'' had at least a developments and let go of his obsessions, so it's more bearable). They were both crazy till the end.
- The emperor (ML's father) : what a useless, spineless, stupid, weak and annoying emperor. It was so frustrating. But at least in the end he finally admits that his not a good emperor and not a good father. But he didn't deserved that kind of redemption arc. His wife (the empress) had at least a bit of brain cells
- ML's brothers : they were annoying, but at least they were trying to scheme and the conflicts between the 3 brothers gave us some amazing eps and fighting scenes. So I gave them that. The older one was so stupid... And the emperor defending them... But the power struggle was necessary for the story, so not that much a negative point here.
2) After the deaths of the bothers and the fight of ep 30-31, the villains were boring and not interesting. The plot was just dragging, the last fighting scene wasn't that good and didn't have a big impact for me. It was useless to had the conflict with the other people (forget the name, but the clan that killed FL's mother) and even Mr. Gu to an instinct. I couldn't care less.
3) Filler episodes with boring or annoying moments to extend to 40 eps. The ones after the wedding in ep 34 for example with the leads in conflicts AGAIN was just annoying to me. FL got on my nerves in eps 35-36. From eps 33-39, I was mostly on my phone the hole time, my interest was gone and I just wanted it to end. I was at the end almost just watching 1 ep a day just to make some progress. This morning I was like today is the day, I'll finish this drama ahaha I had 3 eps left.
4) We were suppose to have a strong and intelligent FL, but she wasn't all that and annoying sometimes. I expected more, maybe I'm biased because I was watching ''A Journey to love'' at the same time and in that drama that's more of a good, strong FL for me. She kept getting kidnap and ML saved her often. When in ep 37-38 SML kidnapped her, I was like, not again... She was stupid there. I also think she wasn't that likeable sometimes, but I agree that she had her moments. Don't know why, I'm also a women, but I feel like the FLs characters are sometimes written annoying, weak or stupid in dramas, more than MLs. It wasn't actually bad here at all, she was still consider strong and had her mind, but it's a tendency I'm realizing now. I often tend to get annoy by a FL and not a ML when I watch a drama, maybe I haven't watched many dramas with the annoying kind of ML yet ahah (I know there are many out there) or maybe I did see some, but nothing comes to my mind right now.
5) I was a bit annoyed with some aspects of the relationship between the leads. Them being in conflicts, they make up, in conflicts again, than make up, ... blah blah blah, happened a few times. It was a part of their relationship and sometimes justified, but maybe they could have had it happen less.
6) I know ML is filial, but he's father treated him like shit all his life, but he was still trying to be a good son, saving him and even kinda getting along with him in ep 40. That man is trash. deserved nothing from ML.
7) ML was stubborn when he didn't want to be the crown when he was the obvious and best choice, but I didn't like how FL was trying to force him. Even less when he was finally crown prince and she didn't want to marry him and make sacrifice for him. Like girl what and she's suppose to be intelligent. Did she really not think that they would have to disbanded the Cui army if she becomes crown princess ? ML already knew it was a strong possibility. And after they got married she was mad at him for the disbanded of her family's army and what happened to her father. ML did is best to defend them and it wasn't his fault, I don't think it was justified to treat him like that. ML also exaggerated by breaking up with her after the letter her father send to the emperor. They both have faults and flaws.... I know they can't be perfect and all of that is part of the plot, but still

So, because it wasn't that good or even interesting past ep 30, filler episodes or some boring moments, the annoying characters and with comparing with others dramas I rated, I stopped my rating at 8.5/10. In general it still a good drama and has many positive points, so of course I would recommend. Also, it's my opinion, I can get annoyed by characters or bored easily, so my negative points are mostly bad things just for me.

If we talk about 2023 chinese dramas that are not modern drama, Wonderland of Love has one of the best ending in my opinion.

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How the Actors Save the Day

The story was just ok for me. The writing wasn't spectacular. The story dragged in parts, but I was so invested in the characters and their relationships that I kept coming back for more. Some of the villains were a little poorly written, no depth really. The same old ploy with the ministers - give them a fake story and they run with it, and in this case, an emperor who was that and worse. Still, the cast did a wonderful job in bringing their characters to life. I loathed the bad guys, loved the good guys.

Liked the camaraderie of the soldiers - and wished for a happier ending for them. The ending was nicely tied up for the most part, but I like to see what's happening and not get a narrative. So, I would have liked to see the young emperor with his two older mentors come back to the palace, and I would have liked to see a family (or even a wedding) for Chang'er & Taozi. And hey, what happened to Pei Yuan?!

And of course, the real draw for me... Xu Kai. That face! His expressions! OMG he is absolutely gorgeous in historical garb, especially the military uniforms! WOWZA! And he's a god on a horse! The chemistry between he and Jing Tian was sweet. Their bantering was cute and funny - and oddly enough for me, because I don't usually care for fight scenes, theirs were nicely coordinated and executed. They looked great, especially fighting together against a common foe. The way they got the evil minister *perfect*!

I didn't expect to like this drama as much as I did, and I might even go back and watch it again if I had time on my hands and just wanted a good dose of eye-candy (Xu Kai) and a little romance. If there had been better writing perhaps, I could have given this a higher score - but the acting earned all the points.

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Engaging story, solid but boxed performance from Xu Kai

From the director of The Untamed and The Legends, no less! My expectations suddenly skyrocket, especially after last seeing Xu Kai in the rather disappointing She and Her Perfect Husband.

The Chinese title, LeYouYuan, is also the title of a Tang dynasty poem envisioning a beautiful but fleeting world (my rough interpretation). Translated as Wonderland Plains in the show, it represents both a physical and mental refuge and happy place. WoL is a tale of erupting power struggles in the wake of a coup. Li Ni (XK) is one of the last surviving members of a royal lineage in a kingdom usurped by a rebel traitor. Three major parties then vie for control of the land and resources: Li Ni's ShenXi army (loyal to his murdered grandfather, the former emperor), the independent and very powerful Cui Family army, and the self-declared new Commander-in-Chief Sun Jing. However, Sun's brutal reign forces an uneasy alliance between the ShenXi and Cui armies. Li Ni meets the sharp and cunning Cui Captain He (Jing Tian), and begins negotiating not only joint trade and conquest, but also love.

I've been following XK's work since Ancient Love Poetry. I saw hints in ALP (as well as The Legends) that he could be a very good dramatic actor but, so far that I've seen, he seemed to be playing the same type of character in most of his shows: ie. the boyish, cocky but likeable hero type, always cool, understated, and at the top of his game. I keep watching him to see if he can break out of this box, and unfortunately WoL doesn't stretch his range.

WoL starts off as a light formula romance, against a big backdrop of war and politics. By Ep20 the drama turns more serious as Li Ni learns Capt He's true identity and factors it into his political strategy. In fact, they both don't hesitate to use each other. Things then get far more interesting as he tries to balance his goals for the country against those for himself, which triggers direct conflict with Capt He's own vision for country, self, and themselves as a couple. The course of their relationship through treacherous terrain makes their characters more sympathetic as their belief systems start to clash. Circumstances push them to the brink in an horrific (and excruciatingly long) battle scene. Will either of them sacrifice their core tenets for the other? At this point the strengths of XK's and JT's performances come further through a crushingly sad wedding scene. Toward what seems will be a tragic ending, XK pushes to his best performance (but doesn't break the box), before the story winds down with a conventional ending.

The story is strictly wuxia and what makes it dense are the fluid shifts of alliances between the 3 groups as they manage not only dealings with each other but also challenges from within their own ranks. The most dangerous foes come from your own family. This results in a fairly large cast of characters, and the ensemble cast is competent, with many familiar faces.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable drama with decent performances and an engaging storyline. XK fans will be pleased with this work.

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One of my Favorite Dramas of the Year

This drama was pretty much exactly what I've wanted from all of the historical/fantasy cdramas that I've watched (and not always finished) in the past.
It has smart and good characters, who go through an actual journey and have growth throughout the show. I also liked the fact that the writers never sacrificed how smart/cunning Li Ni and Cui Lin were for the sake of the plot. Things went wrong, but not because they were stupid and made poor choices.
The story itself was really enjoyable. It held my attention and had good pacing (something that lacks in a lot of cdramas imo). I also liked that while main story points were finished off and new ones took their places, it never felt forced or weird.
Even though I liked the tone of the show (it was light and serious when it needed to be, with just the right amount of angst) I do wish that characters/plots were allowed to be a little darker than they were. For example, I would've liked to see Miss Gu be more sinister and cunning to get her way. Same for the main villains--let's see them being more EVIL!
Lastly, while I really liked the ending, I do wish the climax was a little more intense. I wish that we'd built up to it more so that I was on the edge of my seat, but for what it was, I did really like it and how it played out in the end!

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It's Getting Worse and Worse

I’ll start by saying that I have recently not been the most optimistic about where C-dramas are heading, it just seems to get worse and worse by the year. Never mind I’ll elaborate. At first, I never wanted to write a review based on the first few episodes because as you know things can change in the latter stages, and at the time of writing, it’s 10 episodes left on the entire drama but I just couldn’t keep these thoughts to myself and decided I’d share them at least on the spot. This is mainly because I expect no sharp turns or surprises ahead.
For a start, I see everyone going on about how this drama has been so intense, entertaining, and all that but for me, I just honestly couldn’t tell you what’s happened to C-dramas recently. There are a lot of people that shouldn’t have even made it to the latter episodes of this drama for me, a lot of plots should’ve been resolved much better and faster, the supposed villains were in all honesty laughable and now my narrative that Xu Kai only acts in the very best C-drama seems to be in the mud. CDRAMA HAS MASSIVELY FALLEN OFF. The character Xu Kai has to be dominant in some way shape or form whether intellectually, in terms of strength, or authority, as he has been in his previous successful dramas, he’s not just any actor as many previous dramas have proven, and by using him this way you extract his full potential but I just don’t get why some producers or even however is in charge of selecting actors don’t try and fathom this. Portraying him as a normal character just hasn’t worked with the likes of Snow Eagle Lord, Royal Feast and even this drama, and I really do hope many other dramas he features in take a lesson from this. I massively emphasize this because Xu Kai is my favourite actor at the moment, and I just cannot bear to watch a blatant decline right in front of my eyes.
The acting was decent and as it has been the theme recently, the storyline was average at best. Where’s the smart funny Xu Kai we all fell in love with? Where’s the meticulous planning? Why does the ML have to be slow to recognise danger and why doesn’t he seem to learn from mistakes? All these are flaws in the storyline which I’d say was WEAK and that’s with trying. The ML and FL were fantastic for me, Vincent He (Pei Yuan), and He Zhong Hua (Gu Xiang), just to mention a few of the fantastic support actors, were all just doing what they do best and that is acting their roles to their fullness. As for Gao Han (Liu Cheng Feng), it was a poor casting that’s all I’ll say.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this drama for the above reasons because I think they were just trying to extend it for as long as possible. Each pretty much after the around 15 episode-mark felt like the drama was reaching the climax only for the actors to, for example, ignore the priority, turn a blind eye to something crucial, do something absolutely irrelevant or even add an unnecessary scene just so it could make up the drama episodes.

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Very good

Good drama good good very good very good best cast very good and happy new month to you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you my love and happiness to you and your family and family to be blessed and happy with you and God bless you and your family from the wonderful day of the day of God you are blessed to you and your heart and prosperity to your family and your family to be happy to be blessed and blessed to your family and family and family members and you are blessed to be blessed and blessed to you and your family and family members and all of your life and prosperity and prosperity and prosperity and prosperity to you and your family and family members and

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Don’t watch this if you’ve finished watching Story of Kunning Palace

i had a high expectation towards this one, and if you looking at the ratings and comments section, it’s all about praising this drama.

But..

I watched this after finishing SOKP, and it leads to a dissatisfaction.

i keep comparing these two dramas.

i swear i’m not biased since i’m a big fans of Xu Kai and i like Jing Tian from Legend of Zhuo Hua.

so, in my opinion, DON’T WATCH THIS AFTER SOKP. you have to watch it beforehand.

I believe if I watched this first, i will really really love it.

so i olny give 7 to this one (i tend to give 10 for dramas that i really2 love and not speeding up any scene at all like SOKP, yet in WOL I watched this with 2x speed after 15eps).

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Director did his magic and Xu Kai was amazing

The story had a good flow. The director did a great job with the action sequences( full credit to the stunt coordinator ) and the story telling.
Xu Kai's acting was really good. He effectively conveyed a lot through his subtle looks and mannerisms. His eyes conveyed all sorts of emotions especially the saddest parts of the story. The female lead can be seen as a role model for many girls who are growing up.

Episode 30 was the best episode in this series. And will forever remain as one of the best pieces of art I have ever seen. The action was amazing and the heart wrenching parts( I cried through the whole episode and I don't usually cry that much ever) were equally amazing. Three cheers to the actors and kudos to the crew ( director specifically) for that amazing piece of moving picture art.
Most of the sub plots and sub characters had good storyline.
The main villain through the story was relationships and the difficulty it can create in our lives. Some of us who have strained relationships with friends or family or significant others , can really see ourselves through this series( which actually I wasn't expecting to see at all in this drama but it did show it -- the bonds, the trust issues, the things that can hold us back, and some of our greatest weaknesses--our own family).
People who come to see romance in this show will be satisfied as well because the chemistry between the two leads is sizzling.
But I am sure some of us who love to see good shows will remain for the action sequences and the dynamics between friends,family(adopted or real) and lovers.
I will surely rewatch it once again when I am done with the whole list of others shows I have been keeping on pending for years.

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I can't think of just anything yet...I will tell you later!

This is undoubtedly my favourite Historical Drama of the year!
It has absolutely everything from superb acting to breathtaking OSTs...A worthwhile watch for sure!
Both Xu kai and Jing Tian have amazing chemistry that makes you root for them at every point!
Though it has its typical C-Drama tropes but it still doesn't disappoint and integrates them very well!

The show has very good Cinematography and is able to keep you hooked till the end! There are multiple changes in terms of Antagonist but it doesn't deviate from its initial plot points! On some moments it feels as if the Characters are not retrospective enough but that matches well with their Unyielding nature! The Characters are developed very well and you would feel their loss if they are absent but because every character has a personality it never really feels lacking!

Overall a very good watch and it's probably one of the C-Dramas that are so long and I completed them without skipping at all!

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Wonder when it will end.

The leads were beautiful in looks and chemistry, The comedic moments within the series were just enough to ease the seriousness of the moving plots and subplots. The romantic scenes were palpable. However, the momentum of the drama started to drag at points and had scenes that felt like fillers to broaden the episode count. This definitely could have been accomplished much cleaner within 30-35max episodes. The push and pull of emotions as well as temperament between the ML and FL blended well in revealing how they learned from each other and also stopped being as abrasive as they once were. The OST was okay but didn't leave any lasting effect on the scenes. All in all, it is a solid series with beautiful production that can drag but is worth the watch.

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