The Princess Royal (2024)

Under power, relations are bound to be broken

So, first of all i agree by the people who are saying Zhang ling he doesn't get much screen time is true. He is such a great actor in this drama his acting was very good his visuals was very pretty and sexy. The married couples bickering, cute moments, and the steamy scenes were so so much good but my complain here is they were very short lived and left us craving for more.

I even noticed that the male lead often got ignored or invalidate in so many scenes. And us as audience was not ready. He even got stabbed in fields and the princess just asked him to go after bickering. Its like he was the original victim. He helped everyone in so many matters but he always become sidelined in so many situations.

And what was wrong with writers and producers? They tried so hard to convince us that SML is innocent. But he was not innocent.

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either I die with you, or take you home

ok first thing that i like ab this show is that i love love loooove the development LR & PWX had. love how PWX AAALWAYS reassures LR that he is for her & would literally die than live without her. my girl just has a lot of trust issues bc of all the things she's been through and i'm glad for PWX's character for not creating more headaches for her and always being there for her. and i couldn't imagine anyone else but ZLH playing that role ! i feel like the main leads did a really great job potraying the characters. i could literally go on about them bc they were so!! memorable!!

plot was interesting until SRQ/SML became the main part of the plot LOL i feel like it shouldn't have been dragged for that long. during the final episode he had more lines than PWX did ? which was funny bc tbh i couldn't care less about him. his obsession w the princess was weird, can't stop reminding her that he's in love with her like ok.........noted. the politics are just the usual tbh.. wish there were more scenes w the ML without it cutting to SRQ on to the next scene, but i'm satisfied enough with what's given (and i also have our generation to look forward to ZJM & ZLH together heheh). the second lead's couple(s) story urmmmz it was interesting at the start but then it was just bland (at least to me). feel like i skipped through a lot of scenes once it was ep20-25 because there were a few draggy scenes @_@ would've been perfect without the dragging or if it was a 26-30 ep show i tink

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Lots of mistrust and politics, but interesting nevertheless!

Okay so….I can safely say now that Zhang Ling He is a master of complicated romances! If one has watched The Kuning Palace or My Journey to you, one would understand from where I am coming. I was waiting for the show to complete airing, but once it did, I read some negative reviews and avoided watching it, even though I like Zhang Ling He. Then I watched Love’s Rebellion, loved Zhang Ling He and Sally Jing there, and decided to take a gamble and watch this one. I’d say I was surprised that I found the show interesting from start to finish. A lot of politics for power, strife between the throne and noble houses for power grabbing, political marriages, and mercenaries who wanted to bring about a change! The concept doesn’t sound new, but what was new here was the submissive role the ML needed to play. He was clearly a very intelligent, and highly capable official, stuck at the lower rungs because of being a commoner, and was made the prince consort for the princess who was not only weary of him, but also had feelings for another man, our second ML, with memories from a past life where she thought she was killed by the ML and regretted not ending up with the second ML. While this all might sound confusing to someone who is reading the review before watching the series, the plot of the story can be summed up as having a tragic ending in life and getting a second chance by travelling back in time when things were still alright. What’s new here is that it was not one but three people who got to time travel to change their fate, and when similar situations kept cropping up, the self doubt, doubt on others, and the helplessness of not being able to change things made the series interesting. In the second chance, however, we see everyone getting what they wanted, people ending up with right partners without political considerations. Our leads married thrice in the entire series, the FL got pregnant in episode 37, and even though the story jumped three years forward, we never got to see the outcome of the pregnancy. As for the acting, I liked everyone’s role, I could criticise Zhao Jin Mai for her not-so-emotive acting if I become over-critical, but other than that, I liked everyone. Zhang Ling He was amazing as usual, and looked his best in episode 38 when he takes back his family seal from his evil uncle. I can keep going, but if I had to summarise this drama, I’d say it is an interesting story well performed, could have been better with better acting by Zhao Jin Mai, but still very watchable.

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NOT SO MUCH

Let me review things that aren't appeal to me:

Zhao Jin Mai (Li Rong/Rong Rong)
She's soft spoken, almost whisper, hard to hear what she said (I have to turn up the volume). She sighed a lot in every scenes regardless she's frustrated, sad, thinking, confuse, happy she'd take a deep breath and sighed. She can't dance unfortunately, She's beautiful, she shed tears few times but not feeling the sadness.....she smiled but didn't feel her happiness...she's just there recite her dialog without putting her heart out. I think Cheng Guo (Shangguan Ya) has better acting than Jin Mai.

Things I am not fond of
Too much taking about love & feeling on & on about it, about palace intrigues, little action, Harem women instigated for power struggles (like Empress, Consort Ning, Consort Rou). I think this plot is overly used by c-drama. How many times have we seen this kind of plot in previous dramas? Feel bad for the Emperor, the most powerful man but surrounded by manipulative people and the family who close to him wishes him dead.

What I like about this drama:

Good looking casts, gorgeous costumes, beautiful setting. The acting is good especially Zhang Ling He (Pei Wen Xuan), Chen He Yi (Su Rong Qing/Minister of Justice}, Wei Zi Xin (Tong Ye /Wen Xuan's attendant) I like him - his acting isn't forced.

The story is complicated, last 4 episodes started to reveal as to why how when who. I can't tell who's the heroes or perpetrators. They have sound reasoning, it's all started when Su RongHua fallen in love with Shangguan. Ya, three main characters reborn to their perspective life to young beginning of their life journey, avoiding last life miserable mistakes they vowed to change their 2nd life to support the good cause.

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BEING ACCEPTED AND LOVED

This drama reminds me why I love Chinese dramas so much, full of busy themes and not suitable for relax or watching on the sofa without any deep thoughts.
Husband and wife whose love was destroyed by intrigue and lust for power, but in a second chance with a reincarnation when it all began. Being able to find those feelings again and save the situation from tragedy.
it is a challenging, introspective drama made to analyze and understand, where each character is much more than simply multifaceted, and where the drama is much more than a simple love story. is a drama that truly expand at the heartstrings of both men and women. A drama that teaches to be sincere, to choose your own path, not to be afraid of your heart, all in the perfect ethics of the Confucian social hierarchy, which is still the foundation of Chinese society nowadays.
it's a drama that really appeals to veryone, how to involve. Although the second lead is a rather unbearable character, he is a nice character too.
Recognizable historical elements, full of Chinese culture, wonderful scenarios and scenography, vivid and intense colours, a drama that makes you think and reflect from many points of view.
The special episode is for our hearts.

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Typical

This one is not it for me. I’ve read other’s reviews about who had more screen time and chemistry and have different reasons as to why I dropped this drama. None of that mattered to me.

The Good

Costumes are nice with bold coloring. The production is decent and on the higher end. All star cast which makes the acting salvageable but that’s where it ends.

The Bad

Weak plot! This is an overused story with typical character arcs: overzealous empress, paranoid emperor, weak crown prince, lovesick 2nd ML and our main leads who continue to drag out misunderstandings. It lacks any real depth. People just plotting and vying for the throne but with no real twists and turns. Not once have I felt an “aha” moment and thought, I didn’t see that coming. The first story arc actually would have made for a more interesting story with the rise and fall of the main couple. Other weak points in this story was the acting. I’m a fan of both main leads and both have much stronger dramas. They were unconvincing in this one. Both had pretty flat affect and not once did either one of them move me or make me feel any sort of connection to their cause and/or any of their emotional scenes. Action scenes were very bland and done poorly but I overlooked it as I don’t see this as much of a Wuxia. Lastly, I found the story boring and constantly losing my attention. It didn’t make me excited to continue watching. Most of the conversations between the main leads lacked real substance and could have easily been cleared up if they took the time to hear each other. They could be a power couple and really shake things up in this second life, more so than they are now since they know the outcome but they are too busy bickering every five minutes on unimportant things. Makes for a very uninteresting story. This drama doesn’t even need to be 40 episodes as they can cut out a lot of unnecessary filler and tell a more crisp story of love and redemption.

If you are fan of the cast then watch for yourself and make your own judgement. This one just doesn’t stand out from the rest.

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Full of potential, but got too repetitive and lost momentum . . .

I loved the premise of this. Two people whose marriage soured and ambitions failed are given a second chance to do it all over again. It's especially sweet and interesting that Pei Wen Xuan, our male lead, is clearly head over heels in love with our head strong, somewhat enfiruatiing, highly capable female lead Princess Li Rong.

But after the initial action paced 10 episodes, the plot curdles. Pei Wen Xuan and Li Rong's romance does not progress. The court political plots are all the same and add no tension. The secondary romance has a lot of potential, but then one half is sent off for a bunch of episodes.

This is the first C-Drama in quite awhile were I was excited and addicted to keep watching, but everything fizzled out. I'm dropping . . .

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Low effort production

Don't get me wrong but im a fan of both ZLH and ZJM, and because of them that i watch this drama. I think their acts are impressive.
I had my expectation up when the trailer released, but idk what's wrong with the production team. Tho being known as most budgetted drama, they don't even bother to throw some fake blood on the floor on the war scene and everyone is still so clean not even a scratch or dust visible. Idk while watching this drama i always had the feeling like some scenes are missing something, like small details.
And the plot!!
The first 15 episodes are interesting and funny with the interaction of the ML and FL. But when it gets intense with political fight and stufff, it gets boring. Idk maybe it's just me

I really hope this drama would be good but it turns out disappointed.

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