Nancheng Banquet (2024)

Waste of a Good Female Lead

This drama had a great start, featuring a highly skilled female assassin as the FL, paired against a highly intelligent, also incredibly skilled Commander of the Qianyuwei (elite guards). Even if it had all the usual tropes, it could have been an enjoyable watch.

Unfortunately, the screenwriter took the amnesia trope and stretched it out for far too long. Literally from part of ep 1 to over 4/5 of the show, our amazing, smart FL was dumbed down to a silly, whiny, clingy brat. To add salt to our injury, the show even had to use an irritating child-like voice for her voice. Occasionally, we can see her subconscious act out and we see her true skills but for the most part, she was just plain annoying. They tried to show that even in the dumbed-down state, she was still smart but it was all mostly petty tricks or some glib excuses to get out of trouble. Honestly I still don't get how the ML would even fall for someone like that.

Speaking of the ML, he was the typical cold, stoned-face Commander who often chose noble idiocy, pushing the FL away for her own good. On a few occasions, he would return her affections (especially when she showed signs of wanting to let go of him) and he would pull her back, only to push her away again. Then all of a sudden, he decided that he cannot lose her after a certain discovery. That left a bad taste in my mouth since he did not think she was worth fighting for before his discovery.

The great visuals kept me hanging on. Wang You Shuo and Zhao Zhao Yi are gorgeous to look at and they had good chemistry with each other. Since this was a filler show for me anyway, I was able to ignore the ridiculous dialogue and silly behavior. Their acting was fine, nothing stellar but that was due to the limitations of their characters. The other characters did not leave a strong impression,

I did like the costumes, setting and the OST. The last few episodes were better as the FL regained her memories which is why I did not rate this lower. It is too bad though since these episodes also showed how much better the drama could have been,

Overall, I would not recommend it though unless like me, you just want to look at eye candy and not think about anything else.

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OK watch if you are fan of ML or FL

Mediocre fluffy drama enjoyable to watch on the side. It's low budget but If you like actress Zhao Zhao Yi from Romance of Hua Rong, you might enjoy this drama. The FL is not standard pretty but she's a much better suited for these cross-dressing characters. 1. She's taller & 2. She's not as ideal Chinese beauty & 3. She's not skeleton skinny. Of course, it is still not believable, but she is playing an Eunuch so kind of ok. She's also better at delivering the silly comedy lines so a great choice for this type of drama.

Expect the usual cliches:
Memory loss
Early years encounter
Piggyback ride
Disappearing Kung Fu

Enjoyable Fluff until mid-way when you realized that smart female assassin with lost memory NEVER had any character development. She's been basically reduced to a lovesick bimbo. WASTED potential.

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Poorly Written

This story was very poorly written. I completely fault the writers on this one. This story had potential to be better but fell flat.

The Good

The one saving grace was it had a little comedy that made me stick through it. The OST was also decent.

The Bad

Predictable plot, basic character setup with cold ML hiding his identity, lovesick ditzy FL, Emperor who is a dunce, jealous 2nd FL, corrupt ministers who get away with everything and Empress Dowager who only cares about power and image at the risk of selling her soul. This show had all the makings of every other basic, predictable setup along with many unlikeable characters, unnecessary misunderstandings and situations that defy logic. There was nothing different and was easy to guess what would happen. There was absolutely no character development in this story. Everyone was just going around in the circle making the same mistakes over and over.

I almost think the rating I’m giving it may be too generous but the actors did their best for what they had to work with. I’ve seen ML and FL in better projects. Hope they will all get something better for their next go round.

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Great actors, Terrible script!

I had such high hopes for this drama, I love the ML ever since I saw him in his other drama (The Inextricable Destiny) and I love the FL from The Romance of Hua Rong.

They literally took a badass, assassin FL and turned her into the most useless FL? And that whole plot with the Emperor was odd... I swear I have never seen a Cdrama Historical with such a useless Emperor? LOL it was funny but weird.

The ending was happy and okay but I literally fast forwarded through the last 10 episodes because it felt so boring.

Would I watch this again? Hell no! Do I blame the script? HELL YES! They took two phenomenal actors and gave them a horrible script to follow!

It wasn't so bad to the point where I dropped it, I honestly only finished it to see if it was worth it and it is really not worth time at all!

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could've been great

I really don't have much to say about this show. I was interested from the opening scenes to see real badass action from the FL & was prepared for what should've been a great story. Unfortunately, after an injury which leaves her with amnesia, she turns into just another silly & helpless FL in a conventional costume romance for 90% of the show. Not until she regains her memory in the final 2 episodes does she do anything of consequence & showcase those action skills once more. It could've been a great show, all the elements were there, but too bad so much of it was dumbed down.

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Tropes Galore

I realized that I watch and rank dramas on a curve. My expectations for high profile dramas with big budgets & and big stars are a lot higher than smaller budget dramas. I tend to not have high expectations for small budgeted dramas so it’s not disappointing when it’s not very good. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by smaller and non-hyped shows with 2nd & 3rd tiered actors like The Royal Coroner and Tales of Tang Dynasty. So I was once again pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Nancheng Banquet. Was it great? Nope. Did the story make sense? Not really. Did it bring anything new to the drama scene? Hell nah. But was it a fun watch? I think so! Sometimes I need quick palate cleansers and this was it. It’s amazing how many tropes one show can have and still manage to be decent if done right. Amnesia? Check! FL pretending to be a man? Check! Met as kids? Check! Love triangle? Check! Stoic ML & loud FL? Check! Noble idiocy? Check! I did appreciate how FL didn’t shy away and act coy about liking the ML. I enjoyed the camaraderie between the FL and the guards. I really liked the poor doctor. I wished the ending was better for the Empress. Overall, this show did its job to entertain me. It didn’t take itself too seriously and knew when to end w/out dragging it out. I’ll prob watch it eventually.

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This drama is recommendable.

The story is presictable that they let the villain be know earlier than expected. The male lead is awesome portraying his role, I would love to see him with Peng Xiaoran in another costume drama. 😍 The female lead is also great portraying her role as a strong willed woman in the first few episodes but it seems surreal that she lost her martial art ability once you lost your memory. Like REALLY?
The female lead looks like a coward and so weak suddenly. 😒
But anyway, hmmm good luck to this series I just hope it would be a hit.
I'll give this 8/10 rate but would highly recommend to past time. 😁

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