Drama Addict
New Zealand
Entertaining but dubious
This drama is entertaining with an excellent cast including Peng Xiao Ran and Jin Han as leads and 4 handsome leading actors. Costume is beautiful; cinematography is good. It scored well on all the technical aspects. The story is well paced and has a well developed ending.
The story centred around Princess Chu Jiu Ling who discovered that her emperor father was murdered by her uncle, the current emperor. Her attempt to assassinate her uncle at her wedding failed. She was tortured but was rescued by her physician teacher and his daughter Jun ZhenZhen who swapped identity with her. ZhenZhen started a fire in the prison and killed herself. Subsequently the teacher died in a fall while collecting herbs. Jiu Ling then took on ZhenZhen's identity and went to the rich Fang family and took refuge with her 'maternal grandmother'. She then went on to discover further sinister secrets involving the Fang family. Along the way, she won the hearts of 4 different men, went through 2 weddings and broke off an engagement with one of them.
The drama ended well and we did not end up with some ridiculous child emperor. But there were several questionable unrealistic scenes:
1. It was inconceivable that a rookie in medicine could cure diseases that baffled well-known experienced physicians even if she was well taught - ask any medical interns if they could do that. Conversely, it could be explained that in the old days physicians were generally badly trained as there were no medical certifications required.
2. In those days, I do not think they had the plastic surgery skills to transform Jiu Ling's look into ZhenZhen's no matter how skilful the physician was.
3. In one episode, Jiu Ling threw the enemy's camp into chaos by throwing 3 'soldiers' into a camp of 10,000 soldiers, faking infection with smallpox. It was more likely they would throw the 3 soldiers into fire or quarantine instead of being frightened into chaos - these were people who had fought and killed in battles. I expected the writer to come up with something more convincing and on a larger scale.
4. Chu Jiu Ling insisted on keeping the heritage of her teacher's medical clinic retaining the name Jiu Ling for her medical clinic, which was coincidentally also her name. What a convenient coincidence. Since she wanted to keep her real identity a secret, it was rather stupid for a clever girl like her to want to use this name and of course invited a lot of trouble thereafter.
These were stretching imagination. I accept deviation from reality in fantasy dramas. But for period or historical dramas, I expect something more intelligent. The music was melodious and some of the theme songs were really nice but a couple somehow sound quite familiar in some parts. So I say, overall the drama lacked originality and realism.
However, the drama was entertaining. So if you are not too discerning about these, you could still enjoy this drama a lot.
The story centred around Princess Chu Jiu Ling who discovered that her emperor father was murdered by her uncle, the current emperor. Her attempt to assassinate her uncle at her wedding failed. She was tortured but was rescued by her physician teacher and his daughter Jun ZhenZhen who swapped identity with her. ZhenZhen started a fire in the prison and killed herself. Subsequently the teacher died in a fall while collecting herbs. Jiu Ling then took on ZhenZhen's identity and went to the rich Fang family and took refuge with her 'maternal grandmother'. She then went on to discover further sinister secrets involving the Fang family. Along the way, she won the hearts of 4 different men, went through 2 weddings and broke off an engagement with one of them.
The drama ended well and we did not end up with some ridiculous child emperor. But there were several questionable unrealistic scenes:
1. It was inconceivable that a rookie in medicine could cure diseases that baffled well-known experienced physicians even if she was well taught - ask any medical interns if they could do that. Conversely, it could be explained that in the old days physicians were generally badly trained as there were no medical certifications required.
2. In those days, I do not think they had the plastic surgery skills to transform Jiu Ling's look into ZhenZhen's no matter how skilful the physician was.
3. In one episode, Jiu Ling threw the enemy's camp into chaos by throwing 3 'soldiers' into a camp of 10,000 soldiers, faking infection with smallpox. It was more likely they would throw the 3 soldiers into fire or quarantine instead of being frightened into chaos - these were people who had fought and killed in battles. I expected the writer to come up with something more convincing and on a larger scale.
4. Chu Jiu Ling insisted on keeping the heritage of her teacher's medical clinic retaining the name Jiu Ling for her medical clinic, which was coincidentally also her name. What a convenient coincidence. Since she wanted to keep her real identity a secret, it was rather stupid for a clever girl like her to want to use this name and of course invited a lot of trouble thereafter.
These were stretching imagination. I accept deviation from reality in fantasy dramas. But for period or historical dramas, I expect something more intelligent. The music was melodious and some of the theme songs were really nice but a couple somehow sound quite familiar in some parts. So I say, overall the drama lacked originality and realism.
However, the drama was entertaining. So if you are not too discerning about these, you could still enjoy this drama a lot.
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