Drama Addict
New Zealand
Not the usual theme
What I appreciated most about this drama is that it was based on the decline and revival of a family's fortune. This was a departure from the usual themes of fight for the throne, god vs demons, gang/clan revenge type of stories - these had become very stale for me since I watched a lot of Chinese and Korean dramas.
The head of the Hua family offended the emperor who was narrow-minded, narcissistic, domineering and wicked. The family was driven out of their home and the men were sent into exile, leaving the women and young children to fend for themselves. Worse to come was they were cheated out of whatever minimal valuables they could bring with them.
The newly appointed Commander of the Security Bureau, was assigned the duty of driving them out and confiscating all that Grandfather Hua had written. Hua Zhi, the grand-daughter rose to the occasion to lead the family to earn a living through selling whatever they were capable of producing. The family, being of scholastic background looked down on such careers and it was a challenge to overcome their mindset and stereotyping.
It was interesting to watch how a young girl struggled against family's prejudices against new means of earning a living, and also the bullying that came from business associates and the public as a girl with no backing. You would witness how the different characters in the family responded to the situation. - some were supportive, some resentful, some had other schemes up their sleeves.
Along the way, the younger generations girls found their marital partners - each leading to different outcomes. The older generation Hua daughters were bullied as soon as the Hua family fell from grace. And you get to see how each situation was dealt with, often with keen intelligence, although some were tragic.
Although unknown to her, YanXi, the martial arts instructor was a nephew of the emperor, and he had grown very fond of Hua Zhi. The emperor wanted all of YanXi's loyalty. He could not tolerate his affection for HuaZhi and became a major obstacle to the development of any affection between the two.
In addition to an interesting story was a great cast who acted well, and chemistry between the leads were great. Costumes were beautiful, music were befitting to the mood of the drama, cinematography was excellent.
What was more interesting was some of these happening could happen to any family, even today. So it was easy to empathise with them.
The only doubt I had about this drama was it seemed all too easy to get rich in such a short time, especially in view of the setbacks. The family was moving back to the capital and setting up their businesses in less than nine months - gauged by the time it took for one of the aunts to give birth.
And also, not another child emperor again. :(
In spite of these small nitpicks, I rated it 9.5. Overall, I highly recommend this drama.
The head of the Hua family offended the emperor who was narrow-minded, narcissistic, domineering and wicked. The family was driven out of their home and the men were sent into exile, leaving the women and young children to fend for themselves. Worse to come was they were cheated out of whatever minimal valuables they could bring with them.
The newly appointed Commander of the Security Bureau, was assigned the duty of driving them out and confiscating all that Grandfather Hua had written. Hua Zhi, the grand-daughter rose to the occasion to lead the family to earn a living through selling whatever they were capable of producing. The family, being of scholastic background looked down on such careers and it was a challenge to overcome their mindset and stereotyping.
It was interesting to watch how a young girl struggled against family's prejudices against new means of earning a living, and also the bullying that came from business associates and the public as a girl with no backing. You would witness how the different characters in the family responded to the situation. - some were supportive, some resentful, some had other schemes up their sleeves.
Along the way, the younger generations girls found their marital partners - each leading to different outcomes. The older generation Hua daughters were bullied as soon as the Hua family fell from grace. And you get to see how each situation was dealt with, often with keen intelligence, although some were tragic.
Although unknown to her, YanXi, the martial arts instructor was a nephew of the emperor, and he had grown very fond of Hua Zhi. The emperor wanted all of YanXi's loyalty. He could not tolerate his affection for HuaZhi and became a major obstacle to the development of any affection between the two.
In addition to an interesting story was a great cast who acted well, and chemistry between the leads were great. Costumes were beautiful, music were befitting to the mood of the drama, cinematography was excellent.
What was more interesting was some of these happening could happen to any family, even today. So it was easy to empathise with them.
The only doubt I had about this drama was it seemed all too easy to get rich in such a short time, especially in view of the setbacks. The family was moving back to the capital and setting up their businesses in less than nine months - gauged by the time it took for one of the aunts to give birth.
And also, not another child emperor again. :(
In spite of these small nitpicks, I rated it 9.5. Overall, I highly recommend this drama.
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