Passionate kisses, save the damsel in distress, hilarious

This drama has the most passionate kissing scenes in both count and intensity of all Chinese dramas I had watched – I meant really passionate kisses not those obviously fake moments. As with most romance stories, there were plenty of save the damsel in distress scenes accompanied by endearing gazes as the hero held the damsel in his arms.

It is a lovely romance story with emotional and hilarious moments. The hilarious moments really made me laugh out loud. Unlike Hollywood comedies which mainly play on words, some of these comedic moments were based on suggestive actions of the actors.

The drama is quite straightforward with some small, but not totally unexpected, twists in the story. It has the usual hygiene factors – handsome lead actor, pretty actresses, excellent acting, lovely costumes, lovely music, beautiful cinematography and endearing romantic moments.

What I appreciate most about this drama is the lesson on courtship and early marital life - instead of the usual unrealistic romance dramas. At moments when they were trying to figure out each other, the XiYue princess had her confidantes giving her some silly suggestions which she refuted with some sensible corrections. Similarly for the ninth prince, Song was always giving him some creepy suggestions while Zhen would refute with some sensible analysis. Zhen played the sensible relationship guru here.

The adjustments to life together were comical but not unlike real life when married couples live together for the first time and discover the bad habits of their spouses to their horror.

I noticed some flaws – for the production team to learn from if they should ever read this review. The piece of music chosen for the hilarious moments was too modern for this period drama and a misfit – sound like a piece adapted from some old Shanghai movies. There are some illogical moments, for example, the ninth prince was always turning up alone for dangerous investigations, and covering up for the rebel leader, which was essentially obstructing justice. And he was always lying to the emperor – although with good intent, it still made him a liar.

As I watched this drama right after ‘Goodbye my princess’, I could not help but draw a comparison, as both involved a marriage of prince and princess from different countries. The ninth prince in this drama was supportive of the princess and allowed her to make her choice, in sharp contrast to the fifth prince in ‘Goodbye..’, who forcibly kept the princess by his side regardless of whether she was willing. The two dramas were antithesis of each other, including how they ended. This drama leaves a warm cozy feeling which of course elevated my rating of it above ‘Goodbye my princess’ although the latter has a more interesting and convoluted story.

Finally, a title of ‘Love by Hypnosis’ may be more grammatically correct. Hypnotic is a drug to induce hypnosis or a person susceptible to hypnosis.

As a whole I enjoyed this drama a lot and would highly recommend it.

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Face change? Shangguan Zhi should have a change of personality as well.

Yang CaiWei and Pan Yue were childhood sweethearts, and were bestowed an imperial decree for marriage. Unfortunately, CaiWei's father was demoted and posted to a remote area. Enroute to his new position, the family was massacred by bandits. CaiWei escaped death but was defigured and became the disciple of a low level coroner in order to survive, and was despised by the villagers for both her look and social status.

Pan Yue searched for his sweetheart for 10 years, eventually found her in Heyang and proposed marriage. Shuangguan Zhi who was obsessively infatuated with Pan Yue was devastated. Evil as she was, she arranged for a sorcerer to swapped her face with CaiWei and pushed her off a cliff. But on the wedding night, the faked CaiWei was murdered. Rumour circulated that Pan Yue who was later betrothed to Princess Liu Qing murdered CaiWei to free himself from the earlier imperial decree and engagement.

Returning with the face and identity of Shuangguan Zhi, CaiWei insisted on joining Pan Yue to investigate the death of 'CaiWei' when he returned as the new magistrate of Heyang. Did Pan Yue really murder his wife? What was the conspiracy behind the murder? How would Pan Yue deal with the faked Shuangguan Zhi whom he detested?

The plot was intriguing as the duo investigated into the death of 'CaiWei', both suspecting that the other was the murderer. When this was cleared up, the mystery shifted to who was the mastermind behind the series of murders in Heyang and the motivation. The viewers were held in suspense as they inched nearer to the mastermind and at every stage, they faced sabotage, fabricated incrimination, attempted assassinations and defamation.

You would go on an emotional roller-coaster alternating between light-hearted moments, and sadness at the death of the innocence who helped with the investigation especially of the second lead.

I had watched Liu Xue Yi appeared many times in dramas. He was excellent as the second lead in the Blood of Youth and outstanding as the demon king in the Story of White Snake. I am happy to see him finally landing a lead role in a drama of substance and hope to see more of him in such lead roles. Besides being very handsome, he acted well. It is quite regrettable that Chinese actors typically have to pass their 30s before landing lead roles in good dramas.

I was watching the Legend of ShenLi, with Zhao LiYing and Lin GengXin as leads. In mydramalist.com, the Legend of ShenLi was rated higher. But while waiting for more episodes to be released in the Legend of ShenLi, I was hijacked completely by this drama and 'chased' this drama to the end. I kind of suspected that the higher rating was due to the fan base of the leads rather than the story.

Some of the support roles who did very well are worth a mention - Li Ge Yang as the second male Zhuo Lan Jiang, Qi Pei Xin who was outstanding as the villain in the Untamed acted as the third male lead A Ze, Wu Jia Yi as the second female Bai Xiao Sheng, and Zheng He Hui Zi as the 'real' CaiWei, who did very well earning some viewers' comments that she should have been the main lead.

Ju Jing Yi did very well in this drama as the female lead. She was outstanding as the evil Shuangguan Zhi. As the fake Shungguan Zhi, there were lots of comic moments as misunderstandings arose often while she faked her identity.

However, the switching of the faces was laughable - the sorcerer who did this must be the best plastic surgeon in the whole of history - lol.

In summary, I highly recommended this drama.

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This drama deserves better rating

When it comes to Hu Ge's drama, I guess I would always be a bit bias. He is undoubtedly one of China's best actors. In this drama, he acted 4 different characters - a monstrous highly-skilled general who would not hesitate to kill and make use of people around him to achieve his means, a smart and kind swordsman who would go to great length to help his friends, the same swordsman but insane, and then the monstrous general who had been softened by love. There are a lot of good actors in China, but few can achieve the same level of emotional facial expression as convincingly as he can.

And of course three other well-known pretty actresses makes it worth watching for the guys. Overall, the acting is very good.

For a story, this is the typical fantasy drama with some illogical parts - fantasy dramas have this liberty to do that. A lot of misunderstanding happened because of stealth and distrust. The story unraveled as more and more of the background and secrets of the past are revealed. It is a relatively short drama - only 36 and each episode are short as well - removing the repeated part at the beginning, each episode is only about 30 minutes.

It was filmed about eight years ago, cinematography and computer generated graphics were good for its time. The opening and closing theme songs had been removed from the YouTube version so music was a bit lacking. On the whole, it is still worth a watch. The ending is not a perfect happy ever after, but not a tragedy.

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Deserves a better rating here.

I searched for Kenny Lin's dramas after watching him in Detective Dee and Princess Agent and found this. Generally, I do not watch dramas with ratings less than 8 on mydramalist. However, I decided to make an exception and did not regret it.

The story is interesting with many moments of suspense. Acting was great from a mix cast of Chinese and Korean actors/actresses. The male co-lead was a Korean actor and so was the female lead actress. I did not know this until I checked on the cast. Good looking actors and actresses, fighting and battle scenes for the testosterone driven and excellent stage setting. Excellent chemistry between the lead actor and actress helped brought out the romance in the story. The pace of the story was good without much draggy scenes.

There are some refinement which could have made this drama more appealing. Effects of the costumes were mixed - Lu Bu and Gao Ze were quite badly dressed - they looked like badly wrapped rice dumplings. That was a pity as both actors were very handsome. Also, somehow Kenny Lin would suddenly appear in this gorgeous white armour - he looked dashing of course, but where did the gorgeous suit came from given he was not financially well off at that time? Should have added a brief scene where the princess or someone gave it to him.

Characters are quite extreme - either very impetuous or very docile/reserved. The 2 lead female characters were wilful and impetuous.

Much of the later part of the drama was centred around the formation of the 3 kingdoms, the story from then on became predictable as story of the 3 kingdoms are well known among the older viewers like me.

A rating of 7.4 is really low for this drama and unwarranted. It should be among the 8.5 - 9 ratings if some lousy dramas could get a 7.9.

Regardless of these minor setbacks, the drama is enjoyable.

Titles often determine whether a viewer might watch the drama. I think the English title here is too plain - better be simply Zhao Zi Long or General Zhao Zi Long rather than Chinese Hero Zhao Zi Long.

If you are watching this on YouTube, there are two sets of videos on this drama. I prefer the one from YoYo starting at: https://youtu.be/w8ESJm5bbBI - first episode. The other is from China Zone - this is annoying with sections of the drama clumsily trimmed off.

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Would a forbidden love have a good ending?

The highlights of this drama are the handsome Dylan Wang, the promising Chen YuQi and the acting of Peter Ho.

Dylan Wang acts the cold high-ranking head eunuch Xiao Duo with a secret. He is one of those actors who look very handsome with a stern face. His acting is impressive.

YuQi is at her best in acting the scheming yet boisterous concubine Bu YinLou. I think her acting in this drama beat her performance at the Winner is Love. Her on-screen chemistry with Dylan is excellent.

The one that beats all others is Peter Ho in the portrayal of the emperor Murong GaoGong. His character development in this drama is very interesting - from a timid prince to a hesitant emperor to that of a tyrant. You can literally see the transformation in his acting and facial expression. He is not as handsome as Dylan but his acting is superb.

The story starts very well with an original storyline centred on an eunuch, and not the typical fight for the throne. However, the initial interesting captivation slowly fades into a just a regular development with not much twist in the story. In fact, at some points it becomes a bit boring as it deteriorates into a lovey dovey courtship and love rivalry.

Later in the story, it takes a turn from a romcom into something more sinister. And that turn is not that well developed. It is simply Bu YinLou carelessly left the door of the escape tunnel open. All secrets are out and the emperor seek revenge.

Also, given that Xiao Duo is such a careful and scheming man, it certainly is out of character for him to be so careless in gallivanting with an imperial concubine in view of all the guards and in public, even if it might be in a distant location and among his own people.

Aside from the above, the drama has all the typical setting of the better produced dramas - beautiful costumes, lovely backdrop, excellent cast, quality cinematography.

Overall, it is a good production. Especially, if you are a fan of Dylan or YuQi, it might be well worth watching.

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Highly recommend it and am glad I can find it on YouTube. I watched the original drama years ago when it was aired in Singapore. However, I still remembered parts of it. It is an interesting story based on the Straits Chinese living in Singapore and Malacca, and gives you insights into the customs and traditions practiced by this group of people during the days when Malaysia and Singapore were British colonies. The Straits Chinese were early Chinese migrants who had settled in South East Asia and had adopted a lot of local practices, developed their own distinctive Nonya cuisines, and spoke Malay/Indonesian and their own Chinese dialect. The ladies were known as Nonyas and the men Babas.

The story is a little more complex and less predictable. It is a departure from the typical Chinese and Korean dramas and will give you a refreshing new perspective away from these dramas. The original version is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSSMPsDiI4&list=PLgvSxx961Tt4KD4xApfD6E1u6NWI5bl0I

The original version was produced by Singapore Mediacorp and this review is based on that.

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Superb!

This drama is superb. The drama appeared on my recommended list on YouTube and of course I jumped on it immediately. With Luo Yun Xi (Leo) and Bai Lu as lead actors, it is a must watch for me. I have been looking out for Immortality, a Leo's drama, for ages - completed production but is not released and so this one is a compensation - actually an excellent compensation.

The style feels a little like Ashes of Love and Ten Mile Peach Blossom. If you enjoy either of these two dramas, you are likely to enjoy this drama. There are be some comments about plagiarism by a YouTube reviewer. The romance of the two leads spans three lives and in the dream, there is a God of War and a jealous third party, just like in Ten Mile Peach Blossom. There is this crossing of the river of the nether world - just like Ashes of Love. In an episode, when the dream is going on, for a moment I thought it resembles Ten Mile, but the story develops very differently and is very intriguing. And it certainly beats Ashes of Love, in my opinion.

Leo's and BaiLu's onscreen chemistry is excellent. The alternation of love and hatred was so well portrayed, with lots of fighting as well as kissing scenes. With Leo's excellent acting as a 'tortured' person who then rises to great heights, you see his superb acting skills displayed in this drama. He is a master of facial expressions - evil smile, sadness, forlorn, 'I-am-in-charge', happy, gentle and loving - he does them all befittingly. Alongside with him, Bai Lu is just as outstanding.

Of course, the costumes were fabulous, especially for Leo's, regardless of as the king, God of War, or the demon king, he is very regal. He is quite thin but still manage to look very majestic. Then there are all those graceful manoeuvres in his fighting scenes - he certainly put to play his ballet dancing skills very well.

And this drama has one of the best soundtrack. I have not come across a drama with so many lovely music pieces and so I say this is the top drama for music.

Additionally, do I need to add a very good looking cast with outstanding acting skills - China really has a big pool of acting talents.

I see mentions of a Part II and hope that Part II won't be like the Part II of Royal Nirvana - a completely dark turn of the drama, or like Joy of Life or Princess Agent where the sequel never see the light of day. These are going to spoil the mood completely.

I give this drama a all-round thumbs up.

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Two heart throb as leads and an intriguing story to match

With two heart throb, Dilraba and Ren Jia Lun as lead acts, you can imagine how awaited this drama was. Not all dramas which employed high profile actors/actresses were necessarily well produced but this drama lives up to expectations. I had only completed Part 1 and am eagerly waiting for Part 2 to be released.

Ji Yun He (Dilraba) was a powerful fairy living in the Floral Valley. Her job was to capture delinquent demigods and her biggest strength was the ability to win over the hearts of her captive delinquent demigods.

She and her rival adoptive brother Lin HaoQing were assigned to make a captured merman ChangYi (Ren Jia Lun) speak human words, discard his tail and grow legs, and hand over his ‘mer-pearl’ to demonstrate his loyalty by the cruel Prince Shunde. Shunde was sister to the Heaven Lord and disciple to a powerful wicked Deity who spoiled her for a hidden reason.

YunHe was often tortured by the master of Floral Valley and was told she was to rival her brother to toughen him up. She had been poisoned and controlled by the frost poison which caused a person to go through deep freezing when the antidote wore out. Although appearing to be her arch rival, HaoQing had actually fallen in love with her. While attempting to convert ChangYi, YunHe and ChangYi fell in love. YunHe was determined to help ChangYi and herself to gain their freedom.

Eventually they discovered who was really behind the frost poison and more mysteries unravelled. ChangYi turned from loving YunHe to hating her, partly due to HaoQing and largely due to YunHe keeping the truth from him. Would this couple have a future and would they be able to combat the evil forces lurking in the dark? You can watch the drama to figure out the rest as I do not want to release further spoilers.

What I like about this drama?

- The leads led me to watch this drama and they had excellent on-screen chemistry.
- An interesting story with a lot of twists and turns.
- The supporting cast was also very good. China has a lot of acting talents. As the second couple in the story, the cat deity courtship of his love one was very funny.
- Lovely back drop, beautiful scenery and cinematography.
- Special effects and gracefully fighting scenes.
- Beautiful costumes and interesting make-ups.

Chinese dramas typically do very well with the above.

What I do not like about this drama?

There is very little I do not like about this drama. But I must say it is always the same recurring themes which are rather strange and weird to me. I could not understand them and wonder whether it is a cultural thing. Story lines tend to be the weaknesses of Chinese dramas.

In this drama the theme was Yunhe pushing ChangYi away to save him and then hide her good intention from him. She could do this for the moment to quickly achieve what she wanted. But to keep it a secret later was unconceivable. It was a very awkward and unoriginal way to add suspense.

The same went for the nine-tail fox fairy mistress who played down her contribution on saving ChangYi. Don’t claim merits when they were not yours. But merits should be due when it is due.

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Dilraba and Leo Wu did not disappoint

The two main leads of a drama always make a big difference to a drama. For this, there are 4 leads who completely mesmerise - Dilraba, Leo Wu, Rosy Lusi Zhao and Liu Yu Ning. Additionally, there are the support roles played by Allen Fang and Yi Da Qian, Kudousi and Geng Le - all outstanding in their own rights.

This drama tells the story of a Tang dynasty princess. Li Chang Ge, whose father was the crown prince and was killed by his brother who also massacred his nephews and became the emperor. She escaped and made her way to the northern border in the hope of securing support from her father's former generals to overthrow her uncle. She met an Ashile prince on the way and ended up in the kingdoms in the north. They went through a lot together and fell in love. Along with this, there were secrets, and what appeared to be and was not.

The story is interesting and keeps your attention. There are very few lull moments. To craft suspense and lip-biting moments in dramas, very often scenes which are silly and illogical are conveniently thrown in just for this purpose. There are relatively few of these. The story is pretty convincing although fictitious.

Dilraba who hailed from a number of highly rated dramas like Ten Mile Peach Blossom and its sequel lived up to expectations. Leo Wu who acted the teenage bodyguard Fei Liu has grown into a handsome young man did equally well.

Costumes, music, cinematography, backdrop are all excellent. But I do not like the caps on the male actors - look quite silly.

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Will the 6th prince win the throne?

Tang Lian, the senior disciple at XueYue City was assigned the task to bring back a golden coffin to the city. He had no idea what or who was in the coffin. Along the way, he was waylaid by a number of different sects, demanding that he handed it over to them.

Around the same time, a naive but highly skilled Lei Wu Jie was on his way to XueYue City. He stopped by an inn for a meal when a gang came in to rob. Out of righteousness and eager to demonstrate his ability, he defended the inn against attack only to have the money-minded and shrewd owner Xiao Se demanded that he paid for the damages. Convinced by Xiao that his action was redundant and therefore at fault, he suggested Xiao followed him to XueYue City where he would get the money to compensate him. Having another agenda of his own, Xiao Se agreed. Xiao Se appeared to have no martial art skills but exhibited excellent agility.

It is widely known that the 6th prince was a righteous man, highly talented and well-skilled in martial arts, possessing great inner force. But he offended his father, the emperor by siding with his uncle, the Lord Langya and was stripped off his princely title. While on his way to exile, he was attacked and seriously wounded by a mysterious attacker.

The parties met and teamed up together. Later in the drama, the content of the coffin was revealed and so was the true identity of Xiao Se.

What I like about this drama:

1. Hygiene factors: like a lot of good Chinese dramas, it satisfied most of the hygiene factors: good looking cast, excellent acting, lovely costumes especially that worn by the main leads, Li Hong Yi (Xiao Se) and Liu Xue Yi (Wu Xin - yes, a monk), the lovely backdrop and cinematography.

2. Special effects: it is packed with special effects as every fight is a show of the inner forces of each opponent. If you love martial arts and special effects in dramas, this is it.

3. Humour: although by and large, this is a rather serious drama, there are lots of comic relief. Wu Xin (acted by Liu Xue Yi) was hilarious when he asked the Marquis why he was looking at him - was it because of his good looks. He was always demonstrating his narcissism in this drama, which was quite funny.

4. Hook: to keep the audience chasing a long running drama, there must be a hook. The main hook of this drama was whether
the 6th prince's was going to escape further harm, recover his inner skill, be eventually reunited with the emperor and find out who was behind the attack that disabled his fighting skills, with the help of his new friends. And this is a strong hook.

There are not much I do not like about this drama but I am going to nitpick at some:

1. The theme of rivalry for the throne is so cliche and overused. I am sure this happened at every generation of every dynasty. But watching repeatedly as a storyline is kind of monotonous, even if the story develops differently.

2. Music is alright but not outstanding.

3. The on-screen chemistry between the main male and female leads is quite cold. The woman is keen but the man is distant. There is not much romantic feelings in this drama although there are a lot of couples. The main story is centred around the fight for the throne and the scheming of the 7th prince and how the other princes handle it.

4. Like a lot of Chinese dramas, the capable and righteous walks away from the throne, which is another element I find very cliche. I dislike this sort of ending as it goes against my personal belief. I believe it is only when there are capable and righteous people at the top that a country can prosper. Have people in leadership who are capable but unscrupulous and corrupt, or with good intent but incapable are all scenarios for disaster. Look around you, you may probably agree with me.

Overall, I think this drama is worth watching.

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Not a tragedy but with a gut wrenching ending

The first series ended with Cang Xuan becoming emperor and a political marriage. So the drama continued with XiaoYao nearly marrying Fenglong but the wedding was interrupted by the impetuous FangFeng Bei.

You would not call the drama a tragedy since the lead couple did not die. But the ending was gut wrenching.

This sequel had a draggy start. The first few episodes were quite boring but got quite interesting later. What sustained me during the early episodes was the desire to find out who eventually Xiao Yao would end up with in view of her four suitors.

This sequel did a melodramatic portrayal of Xiao Yao's suitors. The most painful to watch was Xiang Liu and Cang Xuan. Xiang Liu accepted Xiao Yao's rejection as they were from opposing camps, although deeply in love. He continued to make sacrifices for her in secret. It was evident that Xiao Yao somewhat reciprocated as the love bug could infect them both. And indeed if he was really FangFeng Bei, things might turned out differently. What was even more painful was towards the end, he removed the poisonous love bugs at the expense of two of his lives without letting her know.

Cang Xuan watched in pain as Xiao Yao pined over Jing and regretted he pushed Xiao Yao to Fenglong and Jing to gain their support. As he rightly pointed out about his numerous marriages - it was like he had brought all the flowers into his garden but the one he loved most was not there. And there were continual flashbacks of their childhood years and how Xiao Yao had saved him, almost sacrificing herself in various occasions. He wanted her as empress but could not tell her. There was a twist towards the end of the drama, which helped to push the development of the Cang Xuan character forward and helped him managed his obsession.

This drama had some obvious clanky parts. Cang Xuan waged a war and nearly lost, only to have an aging benevolent king abdicated to avoid unnecessary further deaths and in favour of the capable and younger king. Even though the old king had always had the younger man in mind as successor, it was unnatural that he did not become angry at the outrageous betrayal.

The ending episode was gut wrenching as the most selfless of Xiao Yao's suitors was killed although he was revered by his enemy for his loyalty and capabilities. And at his death, Xiao Yao's tear drop he kept fell onto his eyes to become his. This actor was amazing. A good looking actor, doing an outstanding job, taking on a tragic ending in an excellent drama - almost always take their careers to new heights.

Tan Jian Ci was outstanding with the multi-faceted portrayal of the reckless, fun-loving Fangfeng Bei and the serious and ruthless Xiang Liu. He rightfully deserved being list separately as the special lead actor in the lead-in.

Interestingly, when Jing was suspected of being killed, I knew he would be revived but hoped he won't. Although he was deeply in love with Xiao Yao, he was just silently pining away. He did little to stop his marriage to Yi Ying and just passively accepted his 'mistake' and submitting to his foolish grandmother. Even at Xiao Yao's and Fenglong's wedding, he had to use someone else to spoil it rather than did it himself. To Xiao Yao, he was a safe choice - always there for her. Also, he had no ambition besides to be continually by her side. But I would rather have Xiao Yao select either Cang Xuan or Xiang Liu. Unfortunately these men have other priorities that got in the way.

In this sequel, you would go through an emotional roller-coaster of laughter and mostly tears. At the end, you see the couples that remain were not the matches you would have wished for.

However overall, I think this drama was excellent and highly recommended it. Cinematography, music, costumes and most importantly the acting. I gave it a high rating taking away only 1 point for the clanky and draggy parts and for choosing the wrong bridegroom, but in recognition of the spectacular ending.

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The drama is underrated on Mydramalist. It is amazingly good and deserves a much better rating. Aside from the usual hygiene factors of excellent technical and artistic effects - excellent cast, beautiful costumes, cinematography and music, it brought out a lot of emotions and feelings - hilarious comical moments, romantic feelings, heart-rending moments, anger, annoyance, lamentation, regrets, nostalgia - you name it.

Let me start with the outstanding. Jeremy Xu outshone himself in Legend of Phoenix which I thought was quite an average drama. The story in this drama was more interesting and gave him the opportunity to really express himself, besides being very handsome.

The ending theme song is extremely good - the combination of the music, singing and poetic lyrics. It brought out so much emotions - nostalgia, sadness, regrets. It is rare that I got to like a piece of music listening to it for the first time but I did for this. And usually I skip the opening and ending theme songs to save on time when binge watching a drama. But I actually listen to every repeat of this song at the end of every episode!

The drama was also very well paced without the draggy moments you often see in longer dramas.

For such an excellent production, it was a pity that the audio was missing in a number of moments on the YouTube videos. Also, while the English translation for the ending theme song was good, it did not fully capture the poetic feel of the song, which was a pity - it needs an outstanding and very skillful translator to do that. Of course, these had nothing to do with the drama, so I did not take it into account in my rating.

Weaknesses of Chinese dramas are often in the story. Although this story is interesting, there are some minor flaws in it. Xue was always running away from Feng. After a while, that got boring and I wondered whether there were going to be any new development. Feng had an invisibility cloak too - seemed like a copy from Harry Porter. Yet she did not use it to the fullest to rescue herself and the servant maid from the palace. For these, I took away 0.5 points from the story.

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The best of 2020 and first quarter of 2021 - with a refreshing difference.

This drama is grossly and sadly underrated in Mydramalist. I think mainly because it was influenced by the earlier viewers of the drama who wrote extremely unfavorable bias reviews of the drama. But in my opinion, it is the best among the dramas released in 2020 and first quarter of 2021 - and I had watched a lot of good ones. To enjoy this drama, do not watch any trailers or reviews with spoilers, otherwise it spoils the suspense in the story. This is a high budget production; high budget productions do not always produce excellent dramas, but for this, it did.

This is a 'historical' epic based on the Liao dynasty which controlled North East China, East Mongolia, East Russia and North Korea about a thousand years ago. Many of the characters actually existed in history and some parts of the story were true , based on what is written in Wikipedia, provided it had not been doctored to suit.

The story centred around the 3 daughters of the Prime Minister who were married to 3 different branches of the Yelu clan, the imperial family. They were very close when young but the rivalry of the 3 families for the throne eventually led them to pit against each other. The story covered the rise to power and rule of Emperor Jingzong, and his life.

I watched this drama a second time before I decided to rate it and I really appreciated it more the second time. This is a high tension drama with a lot of scenes making you really nervous for the characters. It would hold you in suspense wondering what would be the outcome of each conspiracy - both the good and the bad had their share of instigating these - whether the good would be hurt by the bad, and yes, some times they were.

The lead cast was outstanding and the acting was great. The male lead Shawn Dou was the second lead from the Princess Agent; the lead actress Tiffany Tang was the female lead in a number of well-known dramas, one of which is Princess WeiYang. The second male lead Jing Chao was the second male lead in Princess Silver. And the second female lead, HK Charmaine Sheh needs no further introduction. The rest of the main cast acting the Prime Minister, Wuguli, XiYin, Yansage was equally outstanding. Li Jing, acting the drunken, paranoid, tyrannical and homicidal Emperor Muzong, was really convincingly hateful.

This drama evoked a whole load of emotions - glee when planks were successfully played on the annoying and tears at the heart rendering moments. When the 2 elder sisters were leaving the home during the wedding, it actually made me tearful - I am very immune to crying over dramas - so it is rare any drama managed to do that.

The scale of the production was impressive with Khitan costumes, architecture, and mode of transport, reflecting the nomadic lifestyle of that period and culture. Khitan women were also way more liberal than the stuffy Han women. Historically, Khitan women were trained to hunt, took care of family matters and even court matters. The Liao dynasty was known to have several capable Empress Dowagers (unlike the Empress Dowagers of the late Qing dynasty) including the one in this story. It makes a refreshing difference.

The opening and closing theme songs are nostalgic and very suited to the historical setting.

So overall, I rated it a 10 - one of the very few that I had done - I had done this only for Nirvana in Fire, The Untamed and Ten Mile Peach Blossom.

But I really do not like the title of the drama - legend again? Such a lazy and uncreative translation - translators need to work a bit harder and think a bit more. Something along the lines of 'YanYun Tower', 'Xiao-Yelu Dynasty', 'Yelu Feuding', 'Xiao YanYan' or simply 'Xiao Chuo', 'Emperor JingZong of Liao'. 'Women in Power' or something more creative would be better.

If you are able to appreciate a different culture, women in power and a second chance in love, you would enjoy this drama.

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Dull...

The story line of this drama is unrealistic and quite weak with a lot of parts which are unconvincing and poorly developed. There are illogical flaws all over. The 'hygiene' factors are there: pretty actresses and handsome actors with good acting skills, lovely costumes and beautiful computer graphics, but it ends there.

It seems no one had combed through the script and the people in charge had no eye for details. Some parts of the script are just glossed over as I spotted some rather stupid scenes, for example, General Wei escaped injured in the midst of a shooting ambush but his horse was alright without any armour protection. And there are more.

Characters are rather stupid. The empress was a smart canny woman, yet she fell for the tricks of NingZhi at the beginning of the drama and schemes of the prisoner. The key character Wei Guang is supposed to be very smart and cunning and yet loyal. But when I look at his strategies, many are more of a gamble then well thought out and coordinated. He was lucky to have them ended well. My life experience tells me that leaving things to chance almost always never ends well.

I watch this drama because it was recently produced, just to keep up with new drama releases. But it was quite disappointing. I stopped at episode 32 when the villain escaped again - that is a really lame way to extend the number of episodes. I went on to watch about 7 other dramas before I finally returned to give it a second chance while I figured out what to watch next. Even then, I could not get beyond episode 34 and than skipped onto episode 39 to watch the ending. I must say this works and I am still able to follow the story - obviously not missing much. 5 episodes or more could be taken out of this drama to improve the pace of the story.

Also, the Chinese title of the drama is more accurately translated to Game of the Phoenix instead of Legend of the Phoenix. Every other Chinese drama is called a legend these days.

Felt too much of another run-off-the-mill production - the hygiene factors are met but the story is dull. Of course, I could be critical - I always pick dramas above rating of 8 on mydramalist before I would watch them.

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A Melodrama

This is a melodrama filled with arguments, cold wars, crying, secret pining and at times lovey-dovey moments between the couple Hae-in and Hyun-Woo. Hae-In and Hyun-Woo were a married couple from very different background. Hae-In was the daughter of a rich conglomerate family. Hyun-Woo was from a humble village upbringing but made it into Korean's top university. Their friction stemmed from an inability to communicate properly and to give each other the support they needed to sustain a healthy marriage relationship in a highly pressured family environment. Their friction inevitably opened up opportunities for ex-boyfriend, in-laws, and villains to make use of against them.

The story started off quite well but getting more draggy towards the end as the drama wallowed in more stagy moments. I had trouble trying to endure to the end. Three episodes to the end, I was tapping the 10 second skip icon continually to move the drama forward.

The story was poorly constructed and full of holes. I shall give some examples. Why would Hyun-Woo confide so much in the double-headed snake, Grace? For a smart lawyer, he should know she was likely to convey the information to the rival camp. The Hong family could not confide in each other but could tell Grace things she should not know, even after it became clear she was with the villain.

Hyun-Woo and Hae-In should be hurrying to Germany for her treatment given the time she had wasted. Yet the drama lingered on what seemed like a second honeymoon.

The family kept the information that the medical treatment would result in a loss of memory from Hae-In, justifying that she might refuse to undergo the treatment. She would eventually know anyway. Is it not better to let her know in advance to prepare for it?

The Hong aunt knew the true identity of the villain. Yet she did not use this effectively against her to revoke the villain's lasting power of attorney.

The Hong family was evicted from their home when the villain exercised her power. But the Hongs have difficulty evicting her when they returned, based on residency rights. What's the difference in the residency rights?

Also, Hae-In had a horrible character and personality: stubborn, hot-tempered, self-indulgent, obsessed with achievement to the exclusion of humanity, arrogant, distrustful, acid-tongued. Other than being pretty, she had no other lovable qualities. For her husband to fall back in love with her and her ex-boy to be so obsessed with her was just an unlikely fairytale.

Yoon Eun Seong, one of the villains was a smart man. If he was not so obsessed with Hae-In and dark in his character, he could have continued on his successful career.

It seemed it is like a fashion in Korea for guys to spot a bang (hairstyle). But I think it looks quite stupid - a vain attempt to imitate Prince Harry when he was a teenager?

Also, owning a department store was hardly rich enough to live like a king with so many staff and servants. At least the drama should show a chain of departmental stores.

I am not a fan of melodramatic dramas, much less a makjang and poorly constructed one. I think the 8.8 rating on mydramalist.com is overrated.

However, the cast was good and acted their part well. The chemistry between Hae-In and Hyun-Woo was great. For this, I rated it a 7.5, although the story was barely passable.

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